By Justice Markandey Katju
There are many sycophants among journalists in the world, but the Pakistani journalist Raza Rumi, and his sidekick Mehr Husayn, really take the cake, as they have descended to the lowest depth of journalistic ethics.
In the portal thefridaytimes.com, which they run, they have published articles praising, idolising, bootlicking, and fawning over former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) on her death anniversary on 27th December, as if she was a selfless, brave and visionary leader who had rendered great service to the people of Pakistan when the truth is that she had looted the country.
These articles are:
I have already written about Raza Rumi, who masquerades as a journalist and analyst, but is a downright sycophant.
Raza praised former PM Benazir Bhutto sky high, but I cannot believe that, being a Pakistani, he did not know about her large scale corruption, of which he made no mention. This is given in the article below:
In a poor country, where food riots have sometimes taken place, Benazir always wore the costliest attire and put on the costliest cosmetics (even her lipstick, perfumes, and shampoo were perhaps imported), which showed how much she really cared for the poor and suffering in Pakistan.
In the 1990s, during Benazir’s term as Prime Minister, the GDP of Pakistan declined to 3%, poverty rose by 33 per cent, and the number of Pakistanis living in absolute poverty doubled.
And yet, Raza, in his wisdom, seeks to paint Benazir as some kind of benevolent angel, a heroic figure like Lincoln or Lenin, whose assassination was an irreparable and colossal loss to Pakistan.
Sycophancy too must have a limit, but it seems Raza knows no limit when it comes to pleasing the Pakistan Establishment.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
