By Kulsum Mustafa
Severe identity crisis plagues Jeetendra Narayan Singh Tyagi, born Syed Wasim Rizvi. The former chairman of the UP Central Shia Waqf Board is living the life of a recluse. After months of his anti-Islamic bashing through his writing, his documentary, Wasim had finally undergone religious conversion on 6th December 2021 and converted to Hinduism. Yati Narsimhanada Saraswati, performed the conversion ceremony at Dasna Devi temple in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. But since then the man is in total isolation. While his close relatives and friends have publically denounced ties with him, those from the Hindu religion he has chosen are also not welcoming ‘Ghar wapsi (returning home) of this neo- Hindu and are keeping a safe distance from him.
Ironically the man who had all these years been in the limelight and had blatantly courted and thrived on controversies is himself keeping a safe distance from the media. The media is also leaving him to himself.
“I never tried to talk to him,” said a senior national Television journalist. The same was the case with another journalist who said that the last time he spoke to Wasim was about four years ago.
Contacting him for an interview seemed next to impossible. The phone bell kept ringing on all the three numbers but .nobody picked up. When this reporter finally got him on WhatsApp after almost 20-30 calls, the man said he was sitting with some people and that I could call him at 9 in the night. As expected this was his way of evading the interview. When he was called at 9 pm the phone setting had been worked upon and the recorded message kept saying “switched off, ‘unreachable’ and that ‘incoming calls not allowed.
Seems the controversies surrounding this man have come a full circle. While Muslims in general and Shias, in particular, dismiss him off as “Good riddance” and say he was like a snake in the sleeves of the Believers, there are also some who have gone to the court to register their protest against him and demanded legal action.
THis includes two Telangana Congress leaders, Feroz Khan, and Rashed Khan, who have even announced bounties of Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh on his head for allegedly ‘disrespecting Islam’.
Condemning his anti-Islamic and anti-nationalism, one Mohammad Ansari files a petition against Wasim Rizvi in Allahabad HC. The plea is to ban him from speaking out against Islam and Prophet Muhammad:
Well not one to give up I thought to ‘speak’ to his DP on WhatsApp. It offered a pictorial example of the identity crisis that Wasim Rizvi is going through. While his WhatsApp account still opens with Wasim Rizvi on top of the DP there is a line in black that says Voice of Jitendra Narayan Singh. Of course, there is no voice, but below this line, you find written in bold capital letters ‘Reply to the Islamic State (ISIS Terrorist Organization) And below that is the picture of a mosque dome, in green which is shattered and from the broken top crust emerges a saffron Flag. The caption below reads in bold red-black colour
It is the TIME to BREAK THE ANTI- HINDU MINDSET.
Wasim is a Syed, and as such, it is said that Wasim should have been included in the high caste of Brahmin but he was downsized and inducted in a comparatively low Tyagi caste. Here he is under the subjugation of Brahmins in the social hierarchy.
” He deserves the gutter. He has no face to show in this world or the eternal one,” says Shamil Shamshi, who heads the Waqf bacaho organization that has been unraveling Wasim’s alleged corruption and scams in the years that he headed the Trust. Shamshi alleged that oft and on Jeetendra still tries to quietly enter the religious monuments and that it is alleged in a drunken state. Shamil has lodged an FIR against Wasim and has also informed the district administration that not only is this man doing an illegal wrong he is also disrespecting the religious sentiments of the Shia community by entering the holy premises in a drunken state.
The web seems to be closing around Wasim. This time it seems he has bitten more than he can chew or can digest.