The journalist’s politician

It was in April 1988. Spring was in the air and the red and yellow tulips were in full bloom in Washington DC. The American election stage was pulsating and the country was debating whether it would get it¿s first black president in Jesse Jackson.

 

I got ready at 8 am as I had a very special programme to attend at 9 am, thanks to an American friend who was a campaign manager for Jackson. No , I wasn¿t going to meet democratic candidate Jesse Jackson, but Benazir Bhutto, daughter of the assassinated Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

 

At a breakfast meeting that April morning with around 30 persons at the Institute of Foreign Affairs in Washington in April 1988 , Benazir held forth on politics in the sub-continent. She was her usual articulate self and spoke for almost 40 minutes, took questions and then mingled informally with the guests over an unhurried breakfast. The Oxford/Harvard educated political heir of the Bhutto family was clearly making more friends in the US intelligentia in the run up for her bagging Pakistan¿s top job. Exactly eight months later she would assume the mantle of Pakistan¿s Prime Minister on December 6, 1988.

 

As a young print journalist from India my adrenalin was flowing listening to someone who clearly was one of the most charismatic women leaders from South Asia . I was fortunate to meet her that day far away from both our countries and she made an impression on my young mind as a woman politician whose career would always hold a special appeal for me.

 

Two Prime ministerial terms later when I visited Pakistan to make a documentary film in 2000 , Benazir Bhutto was already in exile. I was amazed to find to what extent public opinion and even that of the intelligentsia and journalists had turned against her and her husband . Even the most progressive journalist was telling me that President Musharraf had come as a breath of fresh air after Bhutto¿s corrupt regime. I remember thinking sadly to myself then of missed opportunities as far as Benazir was concerned and thought how so many leaders who could have made a mark and changed the social fabric of their country in South Asia ,finally failed to do so. In the year 2000 she had lost all the goodwill she had earlier as the Daughter of the East.

 

Seven years later in 2007 things had once again changed. The winds of change were beginning to build in Pakistan and Benazir braced herself to return to her country. In the run up to the return to Pakistan her place in London turned into a media adda as every other day the ¿Mohtarrma¿ as her party supporters lovingly called her, would address the media and lay out her plans a day at a time. In fact journalists in London covering her daily pressers would joke amongst themselves : ¿Aren¿t we being summoned by Mohatarrma today¿ etc etc. When she left London for Pakistan she invited many journalists to travel back with her and cover the events thereafter. She was going to contest and the pollsters had already predicted that she would be the next Prime Minister if the elections were held on January 8^th.

 

Benazir was always a media favourite. Articulate, western educated and with the deliberate South Asian accent that she maintained over the years, she always gave good copy to the media. She was eye candy for still photographers and television cameras and naturally loved to court them. The former two-time Prime Minister of Pakistan could bat deftly with interviewees across the world, never at a loss for words even when faced with the toughest questions.

 

"Are you frightened?".."aren¿t you frightened"--in whatever manner the journalists put the question to her before she came back to Pakistan, she was always pragmatic: " I have no second thoughts.." "I put myself in danger as my country is in danger", "I am ready for any sacrifice for my country and my people" "I am ready to pay the price" etc etc. And what a price she paid !

 

Her faltering steps from the rally to the waiting car, her stopping and waving to the crowds on the steps , an aide ensuring that she didn¿t trip over her shawl and the final impromptu wave from inside her election jeep , the moment that was seized by her assasins...will remain etched in people¿s memory, whether they loved her or hated her.

 

In her final days and moments Benazir showed grit and courage befitting a tall leader like her..a woman leader who may have had a chequered political career with it¿s highs and lows but who showed a political charisma which was of the class of only another south Asian leader, Indira Gandhi. And in Benazir¿s death the sense of loss and depths of sadness were similar to Mrs Gandhi¿s. After all there is something really repugnant about the brutal murder of an unarmed woman leader who is also a mother, wife, daughter .

 

As for me, I can only wish like millions of others around the world ,that the script had been written differently for that charismatic woman leader from the sub continent I met in the spring of 1988.