THE NEW YORK TIMES: Mayor Zohran Mamdani and King Charles did not meet privately. But if they had, the mayor said, he probably would have raised the issue of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond. [sic]
Hours before greeting King Charles III in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani was asked about the royal visit during a news conference in the Bronx.
The mayor quickly distanced himself, saying that he would be attending a ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum “alongside a number of other elected officials” and that would be the extent of his interaction with the king.
But what would he say to King Charles if they were to have a private meeting?
“I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor Diamond,” Mr. Mamdani said.
The mayor’s decision to invoke the 105.6-carat diamond — taken from an 11-year-old Indian prince in the 1840s when India was a British colony and presented to Queen Victoria — was in character.
Mr. Mamdani was born in Uganda, also once part of the British Empire, to Indian parents who have helped to shape his political views. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a leading scholar of anticolonialism. His mother, Mira Nair, is an award-winning filmmaker whose movies have examined the colonial experience. India has lobbied for the diamond, part of the crown jewels in the Tower of London, to be returned.
Mr. Mamdani is also the city’s first democratic socialist mayor, and he has said his goal is to uplift the city’s working-class residents. » | Jeffrey C. Mays | Wednesday, April 29, 2026
À LIRE AUSSI :
Zohran Mamdani demande à Charles III de rendre un diamant réclamé par l'Inde : Le maire de New York Zohran Mamdani a appelé mercredi le roi Charles III à «rendre» le diamant Koh-i-Noor, joyau de la couronne obtenu en Inde par l’Empire britannique au XIXe siècle. »
