Can't exit or forceExit from Hadoop safe mode

Question

I am trying to delete a folder in hadoop:

hadoop fs -rm -R /seqr-reference-data/GRCh37/all_reference_data

But it is giving me an error:

INFO fs.TrashPolicyDefault: Namenode trash configuration: Deletion interval = 0 minutes, Emptier interval = 0 minutes. rm: Cannot delete /seqr-reference-data/GRCh37/all_reference_data. Name node is in safe mode.

I tried the solutions specified here:

Name node is in safe mode. Not able to leave

None of them work. It writes me Safe mode is OFF and then I see the same error. What else could I try doing?

Update

Just found a duplicate thread but it has no answer:

Not able to delete the data from hdfs, even after leaving safemode?