Arrest me on 'illegal Muharram order' but majlis will be held on Covid norms, Shia cleric Kalbe Jawad tells Lucknow commissioner

LUCKNOW: Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad Naqvi on Thursday attacked the police commissionerate for putting a blanket ban on all Muharram rituals despite strict Covid protocols already in place for religious events. The cleric who is mutawwali of Imambara Ghufranmaab in the old city has called the guidelines issued specifically for Muharram unconstitutional and illegal. Jawad has also warned the administration that he will be holding majlis (sermons) at the Imambara following Covid-19 protocols and if they deem fit to arrest him based on an "unconstitutional order", they are free to do so.
The cleric submitted a written statement with the police commissioner accusing that the order was not just misleading and one that is creating turmoil in the community, but is also against the guidelines issued by WHO, Central and state governments on Covid-19.
“This new guideline should be repealed immediately since covid-19 protocols are already in place. And I will be taking the sermon from Friday at Imambara Ghufranmaab as has been for decades. The number of people will be limited to 50 along with thermal scanning, sanitisations, social distancing and masks,” Jawad said.
"If then the administration takes into account their unconstitutional order, it is free to arrest me. But I will request my community to not protest my arrest but adhere to Covid-19 protocols strictly,” he added.
Jawad also said that permission to hold majlis inside imambaras with Covid norms has been given in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and in Kashmir.
Amidst rising tension in the Shia community on how Muharram will be commemorated this year amid the pandemic, small time taziya makers and vendors have set shop in the city.
However several clerics including Jawad and All India Shia Personal Law Board general secretary Maulana Yasoob Abbas have also claimed that the police is threatening taziya makers to neither make nor sell them.
"A number of taziya makers have complained to me that they are not being allowed to sell taziyas, which is absolutely against people’s rights and the law. These people have told me that they are being threatened by the police and problems are being created in their sale and purchase," Jawad wrote in his memorandum to the police commissioner.
These paper taziyas are traditionally kept at homes during Muharram as a replica of Imam Husain’s mausoleum. Sermons and matam at homes are done in the taziya’s presence involving members of the family.