Booked for Haridwar meet, ex-UP Shia Waqf Board chief turned Hindu, BJP advocate

In his speech at the meeting, Rizvi said, “We are not scared of actions taken under the Constitution. If they think we committed a crime, they should take action and we will face it. But if we want our religious rights and want our holy temples back, we are openly saying that we have to take the law in our hands.”

On Friday, Rizvi, who now goes by the name ‘Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, released a video statement saying the case against him was a sign of “the frustration of the militant/orthodox elements within the Muslim community”. Dressed in saffron robes with a tilak on his forehead, Rizvi said: “They realise that their fraud has been exposed. It’s not a hate speech to speak the truth. Hindus are coming together, which is why the parties doing politics over Muslim votes are disturbed.”

His telephone was switched off on Friday.

During his speech at the Dharam Sansad, Rizvi, who often courted controversy with his statements as the Shia Waqf Board chief, said he was “a soldier of Sanatan Dharma”. He claimed his ancestors came from Iran and settled in Ayodhya, and that is why he never followed or adopted “fanatic beliefs”. “When Narsinghanand Saraswati converted me, a lot of people asked me how I became a Tyagi. That was because my father was Tyagi and my brother was Tyagi,” he said.

The son of a Railway employee, Tyagi studied up to school level. In 2000, he was elected as a Samajwadi Party (SP) corporator from the Kashmiri Mohalla ward of Old City in Lucknow. He first became a member of the Shia Waqf Board in 2008, and served four terms as its chairman.

In 2012, he was expelled from the SP for six years after falling out with Shia cleric Kalbe Jawwad, who accused him of siphoning off funds. Following this, the Shia Waqf Board was also dissolved. But Tyagi later got relief from the court and was reinstated.

While he was once considered close to SP leader Azam Khan, Rizvi has been seen as sending overtures to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh. His statements on issues such as triple talaq and the Ayodhya dispute have been consistent with the BJP’s stand. In 2019, he wrote and produced a movie, ‘Ram Ki Janmabhoomi’

At the Haridwar meeting, Rizvi said that the demolition of Babri Masjid might have been wrong “legally”, but if it wasn’t demolished, the matter would still have been in court and construction of the Ram temple not started.

In March this year, he filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking removal from the Quran of 26 verses.

Rizvi has also faced charges of corruption and of promoting enmity. In February 2020, the UP government gave the Prayagraj police sanction to prosecute Rizvi in a 2016 case in which he was booked for promoting enmity.

In November 2020, the CBI registered two cases against him and others in connection with alleged irregularities in the sale, purchase and transfer of waqf properties in UP.