India, Nov. 10 -- At a time when Jawaharlal Nehru is portrayed as the villain of the piece-whose so-called incompetence, we are told, led to the Kashmir problem and the country's slow progress-it was thrilling to hear his stirring words echo across continents, from distant New York. The occasion was the victory speech of Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected Mayor of New York and the youngest ever to hold that post.

In an age when Nehru's legacy is being systematically tarnished, it was almost poetic that an American of Indian and Ugandan heritage invoked his immortal words.

Mamdani quoted from Nehru's Tryst with Destiny speech, delivered on the midnight of August 14-15, 1947, when India rose from a colonial state to a free, sovereign natio...