By Abbas Muzaffar
Everyone in the media fraternity in Delhi called him Zafar Bhai. In a cutthroat competitive media landscape in Delhi I did not come across a single person, in over two decades of my career in media, who did not like or respect Zafar Agha.
As a journalist he was always a voice of powerless . Well that’s how a journalist should be. I personally believe, if a journalist has to be biased, the bias should be in the favour of the people and not the power. Zafar Agha epitomized that. He favoured all the reforms that were for the underdogs of the society, be that Mandal Commission implementation, prior to and during the V P Singh’s government, or the Muslim community’s empowerment through education, skills, adjustment, negotiation, liberalisation and counter fanaticism. He wrote on all these subjects.
Besides being a journalist and a media analyst par excellence, it was Zafar bhai’s helpful nature that won him hearts. Inside the family he was one of the most loving and caring elder brother to us. For everyone else, whosoever approached him for any help, Zafar bhai just won him over by personally sorting things out like it were his own problem. It was Zafar bhai who taught me how to effectively deal with powers.
By the time I started my education and career in Delhi beginning 1991, Zafar bhai was already a seasoned journalist. I was so much in awe of his genuine and objective journalism, that when I was doing my Master’s at Delhi’s reputed AJK Mass Communication Research Center, I decided to analyze his journalism for my Media Research project, and he wasn’t even aware of it. Every time I embarked upon any of my documentary films on subject of politics and current affairs, Zafar bhai was just a call away. As a filmmaker and a journalist, one thing that I learnt from Zafar bhai is to just be brutally honest and truthful in your work, and you won’t have anyone to fear or answer. Like Zafar bhai, I too have faced the consequences of speaking the truth through my career.
Well lived Zafar bhai, even those who you had put in the uncomfortable positions with your objective and truthful journalism, they also call you Zafar Bhai, and that’s what is remarkable of your journalism, of speaking truth to power. We are one less of such journalists who are needed the most now.
(Zafar Agha, 72, a veteran Journalist, former group editor of National Herald, Qaumi Awaz, Navjivan breathed his last on 22nd March 24, he worked for multiple media organisations during his long career, He also served as an officiating Chairman of Minority Commission of India.)
- Abbas Muzaffar, a documentary filmmaker, electronic and digital media practitioner worked for National Geographic, BBC, NDTV and Times Of India Group and currently teaches FILM, TV & Video Production at Webster University of America.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
