When I reached Mazgaon, I wasn’t sure if Zakir Naik’s press meet would actually happen, for it had been cancelled and postponed a number of times! Little did I know that it would turn out to be one of the longest, most heated, and pandemoniacal meetings I’ve ever attended!
The narrow lane near Wadi Bunder was packed with police vehicles and OB vans of various TV channels. I followed the cables of OB vans and entered a poorly-lit, claustrophobic room. There were more than 100 media persons and volunteers of Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) cramped inside the tiny room! I somehow got a place to stand. I didn’t complain as I was aware that IRF had faced great difficulty in finding a venue for the meeting.
Zakir Naik was supposed to speak at “10 am sharp” but nothing happened till 11 am. As a journalist, I know no press conference starts on time. I am used to it. But the cramped and sweaty surroundings made the wait nearly unbearable.
There was a screen for Naik’s Skype appearance and 5 men were sitting at a table to defend him. One of them was his lawyer, Advt Mubin Solkar. Around 11 am, we saw Naik appear on the screen for a moment. Before we could inform our offices, he disappeared.
An announcement was made that Naik’s recorded answers would be played in the beginning. We were told that Naik would appear live after the recorded answers. We argued that we wanted him live. What was the point of a press conference if we were to listen to his recorded sermons? Still, the organisers went ahead with their plan. When the first video started, we realised it was an old video circulated last week. We informed them of this but they would not listen. After a long, preachy answer, the second video started. Even that was an old one! They were clearly wasting our time.
We all got up and told them that if Zakir Naik didn’t come live, we would boycott the meet. They were non-committal. I think their plan was to avoid or minimize live interaction. But we were firm on our stand. By 11.30 am, most of us got up to leave the venue. Then suddenly, Naik appeared on the screen!
Speaking from Saudi Arabia, he first condemned the terror attack in France. Then he started taking questions. The organisers clearly had no experience of handling a press conference. There was complete chaos about who would ask questions in what order. Generally, organisers prepare an order in which questions would be asked. Some journalists accused organisers of denying them a chance to ask a question.
While this chaos was going on, a Zee News reporter asked him
about the condition of Indian Muslims. Frankly, this question wasn’t directly
related to the topic. Zakir Naik first refused to answer the question. His men
in Mumbai shouted at the reporter. Tempers rose. Naik could have politely
admitted that he wasn’t aware of the topic. When he eventually did, it was too late.
When asked about terrorism, he accused the media of running a
media trial. He’s partly right, but there was no need to generalise the situation. Some
media houses have made mistakes, but quite a few have come out with fine reports
on Naik’s allegedly dubious deals. I think Naik’s strategy was – attack is the
best defence! He even threatened to file defamation cases against journalists.
His constant jibes at the media irked many of us and changed the tone of questioning. When we intervened and asked Advt Solkar to ask Naik to stop this, an IRF man got up and said, “You call him a terrorist and now you can’t take this!” Many things hint at his terror links, but I never called him a ‘terrorist’; why, then, was he accusing journalists like me of “spreading lies”?
When a journalist asked him about his support to Osama, he said the video was doctored. When another journalist asked him about his appeal to Muslim youth to become terrorists, he said that video was doctored as well! His stance was slightly changed and more guarded, compared to his initial interviews to newspapers.
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When Naik was cornered by tougher questions, he started calling us names! He called Jayprakash Naidu of Hindustan Times ‘foolish’. To an NDTV India reporter, he said, “aap ki buddhi kam hai” (you lack intelligence)! This angered many of us. We got up and demanded an apology. Naik was smiling in Saudi as his men in Mumbai were yelling at us.
We could have boycotted the press conference then, but we wanted to ask Naik some important questions. He, however, was is no mood to answer them. Of Burhan Wani, he claimed he’d never heard the name of the Militant commander. He quipped he never reads newspapers as it was “a waste of time”! He kept mum when repeatedly asked about entry of women inside Haji Ali dargah. If he chose to answer other questions on Muslim women, why couldn’t he answer this one? Was he was worried that his orthodox views would upset his women followers?
At one such uncomfortable moment, out of the blue, he started targeting Arnab Goswami, the editor of Times Now. “Studio ke andar chooha bhi sher banta hai, sher ka bachcha hai to bahar aao!” (inside a studio, even a mouse feels like a lion, if you’re a lion cub, step out!) He kept referring to him as chooha and challenged him to a public debate. Times Now Mumbai bureau chief Megha Prasad kept asking for a mic to respond to Naik’s unexpected attack, but she wasn’t given a chance for a long time. When she got it, she set the record straight by saying that it was Naik who was avoiding a debate. She was right. Not only Times Now, many of us have been trying to get his interview, but he has been avoiding us.
After two and a half hours, it was getting repetitive. The organisers should have stopped the conference there. But they wanted to show that they were fair to everyone (after all the insults!) so they allowed a second and then a third round of questions. Finally, around 3 pm, they took a break for prayer and lunch. To meet again in some time! I thought there was no point in staying back, so I returned to my office.
I had thought Zakir Naik, a medical doctor and a preacher, would at least show decency but I was disappointed. His statements like, ‘I have more Facebook followers than Baba Ramdev’ seem childish. Here was a man, who had himself fled the country, and he was daring others to step out!
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