Ald. Maria Hadden (49) was an unlikely champion of Indian religious minorities, until a groundswell of her South Asian constituents alerted her to human rights abuses perpetrated at the hands of India’s government, she said. Her months-long effort culminated on Thursday, when her colleagues voted to advance her resolution (R2020-583) condemning religious violence in the world’s largest democracy.

Even less likely was that her predecessor, former Ald. Joe Moore (49), would become one of her fiercest adversaries in the effort.