The arrest of Waseem Rizvi: the tragedy for Muslims facing genocide threats in India
The arrest of Waseem Rizvi in the infamous Haridwar āDharam Sansadā hate-speech case has exemplified how the caste privileges that upper-caste Hindus boast of and the impunity with which they operate, canāt be enjoyed by someone who converts to Hinduism, especially a Muslim. This tragedy is going to haunt the man probably for a long time.
Though Rizvi has been using his new name, Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi, in public, the Uttarakhand Police, which arrested him from the Haridwar-Narsan border on Thursday, January 13th 2022, and presented him to a Chief Judicial Magistrateās (CJM) court, is still treating him as āWaseem Rizviā.
āRizvi was detained at Haridwar-Narsan border and produced before the CJM court by police late in the evening. The court has sent him to judicial custody. Two cases were registered against him in the city police station. He had made provocative statements against the symbols of Islam during his controversial book launch at Haridwar Press Club and also at the three-day religious conclaveā, Shekhar Suyal, the circle officer (CO) of Haridwar Police, told the press.
The arrest of Waseem Rizvi happened due to a first information report (FIR) lodged against him for spewing communal venom and denigrating Muslims from the āDharam Sansadāāa purported religious grand assemblyā organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-influenced Hindutva fascists. The FIR under Section 153(A) accuses him of spreading enmity between different communities.
According to CO Suyal, two moreāDharm Das and Annapurna Maa aka Puja Shakun Pandey of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM)āhave been also accused in the same case. The organisers of the āDharam Sansadā, which took place from December 17th to December 19th 2021 at Haridwar, called for an anti-Muslim genocide in India to āpreserve the Sanatana Dharma (upper-caste Hindu religion)ā.
When Rizvi, the former chairman of the Shia Central Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh, converted to Hinduism on December 6th 2021 at the Dasna temple of Ghaziabad, in the presence of controversial Hindutva fascist rabble-rouser Yati Narsinghanand, little did he know that his new upper-caste identity as Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi wonāt allow him the same privileges that his political masters, who are upper-caste Hindus by birth, enjoy.
Itās not just that the arrest of Waseem Rizvi in the Haridwar āDharam Sansadā hate-mongering case is ironic, rather, the entire episode following the infamous assembly and anti-Muslim genocide call, shows how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules both the Union and the state of Uttarakhand, has been using double standards on Hindutva hate-mongers who help the Party to polarise the voters and sweep elections with utmost ease.
Why the arrest of Waseem Rizvi is problematic?
After Rizvi, who has been trying to grab the centre stage of political attention since 2018 by playing the Islamophobic card, converted to Hindu religion and took an upper-caste identity, he considered himself equal to his RSS brethren. However, that wasnāt going to be the case anyways.
When Rizvi took part in the āDharam Sansadā from where anti-Muslim slogans were raised and a genocidal declaration was made, he didnāt know that he is lending his former-Muslim shoulders to the ilk of Yati to place their guns and shoot. The arrest of Waseem Rizvi, while the rest remain scot-free, shows how his excessive show of servility and prostration didnāt pay well.
The arrest of Waseem Rizvi didnāt take place because he had a role in the āDharam Sansadā, rather, it happened because the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand government wanted a scapegoat, and none fits the bill as Rizvi-turned-Tyagi does. By arresting him, the BJP government has killed two birds with a single shot.
On the one hand, the BJP-led Uttarakhand government will show this arrest as a strong step against the hatemongering that happened at the āDharam Sansadā in December 2021, on the other hand, it will only persecute a former Muslim, whose political utility is over for the ruling clique.
There isnāt anything new in this approach and the arrest and jailing of accused Tyagi. The BJP has been hitherto using and dumping the handful of opportunist Muslims, who join its ranks in search of a robust career, in a similar fashion. Rizvi didnāt get any special treatment as well.
The CJM could send Rizvi aka Tyagi to 14-day-long judicial custody because the police didnāt ask for his custody. This means that the police have nothing to interrogate, nothing to ask from him, nothing new to know from him. But why? Isnāt it important for the police to seek information from an arrested accused about a crime he or she was about to commit?
How the anti-Muslim genocide calls have been downplayed by the state?
Though the Supreme Court has taken cognisance of the offence after senior advocates Kapil Sibbal and Indira Jaysingh filed a writ petition on the āDharam Sansadā case and the non-registration of any appropriate FIR by the police, the BJP-led state government has been denying that this assembly called for anti-Muslim genocide.
Firstly, there has been no FIR registered by the government or any police officer against the organisers of the āDharam Sansadā, which validates the claims made by rabble-rouser seers at the venue that the police and the entire administrative and military machinery of the Indian state will join hands with them in exterminating Muslims like the Rohingya genocide has taken place in Myanmar.
Secondly, even though individuals filed the FIR, it was lodged only under Section 153(A), ie, promoting enmity between different religious groups. However, no charges under the colonial-era sedition law, the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), etc, have been filed against Tyagi and his associates. According to the Uttarakhand Police, the anti-Muslim genocidal calls from the āDharam Sansadā didnāt result in any violence against the minority Muslims, hence, the UAPA couldnāt be implemented.
This means, even if the state pursues the charge against Tyagi and two others for a long period, the maximum punishment he may get, if convicted, will be imprisonment for a very short period vis-Ć -vis the life imprisonment provisions of the UAPA and the sedition law under IPC Section 121(B).
Moreover, the press coverage of the āDharam Sansadā and the hate speeches delivered by Yati, Annapurna Maa, Prabodhanand, etc, didnāt mention the fact that this programme was organised in Haridwar to prepare for an anti-Muslim genocide in different parts of India under the RSSās aegis. The press has labelled the matter as the āHaridwar hate speechā, downplaying the anti-Muslim genocide threat that emanated from this āDharam Sansadā.
As none came forward to file an FIR against the perpetrators of this genocide call, these Hindutva fascism-incensed thugs are now excessively motivated and emboldened. In a country where the Muslims are already facing sporadic incidents of violence, mob lynchings, pogroms, ostracization and vilification, such genocidal calls will worsen the situation further.
What about the culprits like Yati, Annapurna Maa, Prabodhanand, etc?
Rather than arresting the main organisers of the Haridwar āDharam Sansadā, the BJP-ruled Uttarakhandās police and administration are pleading with Yati to give up his hunger strike. Yati has been adamantly sitting at a riverbank of the Ganges in Haridwar and participating in a hunger strike against the arrest of Waseem Rizvi.
CO Suyal and city magistrate Awadheesh Singh visited Yati at the venue of his hunger strike and tried to dissuade him from continuing the hunger strike. However, Yati, riding on sheer hubris in a poll-bound BJP-ruled state, continues to remain adamant on his demands.
The Uttarakhand Police not only let him off, according to Yati, while arresting Rizvi aka Tyagi, the policemen are also seen at Sarwanand Ghat in Har Ki Paudi, Haridwar, guarding Yatiās hunger strike venue. This shows how the thin line demarcating the state and the Hindutva fascists is disappearing fast.
āTyagi was with me when he was arrested. I told the police to arrest me too as I am a co-accused, but they wouldnāt listenā, the hatemonger Yati accused on Friday. He also said, āI am on satyagraha and will neither eat nor drink until Tyagi is released.ā The Uttarakhand Police didnāt provide an answer on why Yati wasnāt arrested with Tyagi, who is now in judicial custody for 14 days. It seems that either the BJP needs Yati on a long-term basis or there is something Yati knows that the BJP doesn’t want the world to know.
Playing his Islamophobic card, Yati accused that the governmentāthough itās run by the BJP and the RSS who promote and safeguard Yati and his ilkādidnāt arrest Tyagi when he was āWaseem Rizviā and spoke against Islamās vices; he was arrested only when he became a Hindu.
The other accused also remain scot-free even after the arrest of Waseem Rizvi. New āDharam Sansadā meets are going to take place throughout Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP is going to fight anti-incumbency waves with sheer Hindutva fascist narratives and hatemongering. In this situation, itās unlikely to see that those who raised the anti-Muslim genocide tempo at Haridwarās āDharam Sansadā shall face any sort of wrath of the state.
How does the law torment Muslims?
While the arrest of Waseem Rizvi shows how the police would chase the soft targets to safeguard the important culprits whom the ruling classes need for their political purposes, the Muslims who are unapologetic about their religious identity unlike Rizvi aka Tyagi, always face the heat of state repression.
Activists, politicians and academics like Umar Khalid, Meeran Haider, Khalid Saifi, Sharjeel Imam, Asif Iqbal Talha, Athar Khan, Gulfisha Fatima, Safoora Zargar, Tahir Hussain, etc, had or have been languishing behind the bars under UAPA, sedition and other draconian, non-bailable charges for waging a just struggle against Prime Minister Narendra Modiās BJP governmentās divisive agenda and the RSSās incitement of communal violence.
These people are languishing behind the bars or are out on bails with a threat of imprisonment looming on them because they happen to be Muslims and have been demanding equal rights for Muslims as per the Constitution of India. They didnāt call for genocide of Hindus, they didnāt call upon the Muslim community to arm themselves against the Hindus or even the BJP-led government and they didnāt call for overthrowing the present government through an armed struggle for the establishment of an Islamic state.
Yet, these people are suffering the stateās persecution while those calling upon Hindus to arm themselves and kill fellow citizens are getting police protection and the impunity to spread venom in the society. Thanks to the BJPās double standards on terrorism and nationalism that such a mockery of the judiciary and Indiaās constitutional rule has been possible.
Where will the events lead India?
The genocidal maniacs like Yati and his cohorts arenāt going to stop. They will continue to organise the āDharam Sansadā meets and incite the lower-caste Hindus and ostracised Dalits to kill the Muslims. This will provide a leeway to the BJP, which is worried about a division in Hindu votes due to the lower castes and the Dalits going against the incumbent party in Uttar Pradesh.
If the BJP manages to return to power in Uttarakhand and, most importantly, in Uttar Pradesh, then it will augment the status of Yati and other RSS-sponsored militant Hindutva fascist monks. They may be elevated to constitutional positions and get a greater share of the power pie for their services. While the genocidal calls will also result in sporadic incidents of organised violence against Muslims.
As the RSS and the BJP maintain distance from these eventsāeven though the BJPās leader Ashwini Upadhyay participated in the programmeāand donāt endorse them officially, any aftermaths of such genocidal rhetoric by these fascists wearing saffron robes to hoodwink the masses can be simply blamed on āfringe elementsā. Thus, on a global scale, though such incidents draw public ire, the BJP and the RSS remain immune from criticism.
The arrest of Waseem Rizvi aka Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi will not lead to the arrest of Dasna templeās chief Yati or ABHM chief Pandey aka Annapurna Maa or Hindutva fascist Prabodhanand. The only hope for the persecuted and the vulnerable Muslim community is in the defeat of the BJP in the assembly elections in both Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
However, the āsecularā Congress party-led Chhattisgarhās Hindu āDharma Sansadā showed how all so-called anti-BJP parties also play according to the RSSās playbook and thereās no scope for the Muslims to get justice within the Brahminical-feudal order.
So, for the time being, it seems whether the BJP remains in power or whether the Opposition manages to secure Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh in March 2022, the Muslims will need to be content with the arrest of Waseem Rizvi in the infamous āDharma Sansadā case. They canāt expect anything more, neither from the BJP nor from its self-styled āsecularā opponents.
Unsigned articles of People's Review are fruit of the collective wisdom of their writers and the editors; these articles provide ultimate insight into politics, economy, society and world affairs. The editorial freedom enjoyed by the unsigned articles are unmatchable. For any assistance, send an email to write2us@peoplesreview.in