Behind the News: Voices from Goa's Press

nce 1995, he has been a full-time freelance journalist, writing mainly for the outstation media, including the Indo-Asian News Service. He has an active presence on the Internet, and has

owever much it may be considered in the public interest, shall be sent to the press without prior clearance from the

is like denying oxygen to a human being. - Stray Thought

worked under him have a sneering you-don't-know-the-inside-story attitude. Others credit the man with making them what they are.

ny venture to understand the contemporary media in this small state would be incomplete without a chapter on Rajan

who suddenly descended on the Goan scene sometime in 1983. Someone who has critically shaped the u

e (by saying things no editor would say); heading an organisation that, by design or otherwise, actually gave a chance to many youngsters to enter the profession; building up a till-now sustainable alternative to the once arro

SARS campaign at Remo Fernandes' 50th birthday is a case in point, as are the willingness to propose projects to a government that are otherwise blasted from the editorial pulpit). This rather personalised essay, obviously b

esides Rajan, also sitting in on the interview was Valmiki Faleiro, who was egged on by the recent public debate to tell his side of the story in another chapter. (Devika Sequeira, then still in her 'twenties but quite in command of the situation, willing to spend extremely long hours and clear about what she expected to brin

dian origins, and with his formal clothes, he could have easily passed off as a scion of a landed Goan family. Rajan did seem a bit embarassed to make the offer of Rs 300 as the payment for a trainee sub-editor. But money didn't matter, and the joy of

that telegram calling on

dona and myself took up our seats on the bare sub-editor's table, learning the basics of a profession that some continued in. Bosco seemed to be disillusioned that journalism offered so little scope for creative writing; but he stayed on and worked his way through Goa Today, Gomantak Times, the Portuguese Lusa news agency, an

other. It could have just been a faulty manner of encouraging subordinates to improve in their performance, but promises of promotions to more than one candidate,

Rajan was almost a godfather. "How much are the $%#@$%s paying you?" he would someti

t the Herald then and frequent resignations from staff, meant a junior sub-editor coul

umber of adverts compared to today. Some left for better prospects; but opportunities were few and far between anyway, then as now. A few went on to continue their education; Alvis Fernandes, one of the young men recruited through the informal Miramar boys' network that proved to be a usef

lston Soares, Lionel Lynn Fernandes, Derek Almeida, the brothers Francis and Agnel Fernandes, Goldwyn Figueira, Agnel Rodrigues (sub-editors/chief sub editors), Perves De Souza, Cherryl DeSouza, Anna Mendes, Valentino Fernandes, Armenia Fernandes, Sharmila Kamat, Babacier Gonsalves (all reporters

environment. At that time, when asked for his comment, Rajan told the Goa Today something to the effect that the

lt at that time comes out in the note then written, to which the signatories were myself (listing the donkey first, so as not to deny the fact that on

correspondent resigned from the Herald. Instead of deceiving oneself by calling these people 'opportunistic and mercenary', it would

ournalist involved in launching the English-language Herald a little over f

opportunistic and mercenary people' (including us, by his definition) ar

ld's 'top is still intact'. It calls for deep soul-searching on the part of Mr Narayan to find out why scores

to the area, and anyone would have thought they were just a couple of Indian tourists; Perviz teamed up with Rajan himself to chase the then-admired now-infamous Robert Mugabe to a church in Chimbel where the once-charismatic leader had gone to trace his ancestors from an empire that once ruled

difficult night-shifts of those days were stressful, and asked for a five-nights, three-day schedule. This meant that we got two off-days in every ten days, or six in a month. Rajan's response was something to the effect that this was fine, provided we at the news-desk managed things among ourselves and didn't then make a case for more

, when the staff got the drift their their editor was unable or unwilling to take their issues into accoun

ty of his tenure. One got the feeling that the paper was not being improve

s were, even if the editor posited himself as the paragon of a free press. From industrial groups lacking their own mouthpiece in pr

gwig Dr Wilfred de Souza . How so? Obviously Rajan had flung across a copy to the sub concerned with a 'Find the mistake in it, or get sacked'

st difficult task. Specially if they are your own errors. Everything looks correct. This writer too has made

se - doubled up as 'pilots' to the seniors. It came as a shock to one's post-teenage idealism to hear Rajan argue after being ferried to a length

ort on protests from a citizens' group concerned about the pouring of crores down the drain in the name of building infrastructure. If one recalls right, the figure was around Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million), a huge sum by early 'eighties standards. Another issu

outstation media, for instance, didn't get a clue that such questions were at all being asked in Goan society. When it comes to recording the hist

nd among the diaspora, tends to read him as being a "hero for Konkani". (Dr Teotonio De Souza, historian, commented on Goan

an's role in the language agitation is yet to be adequately evaluated. The Week magazine, in an article written by the journalist Ashok Row Kavi (who went on t

The two Naray

ant 'Narayan, Narayan' echoed in the cosmos. It meant that Narad

athi daily Gomantak, and the other Rajan Narayan, editor of O Herald an English daily from Panaji.

s can be questio

hat. Athavle is

pawan Brahmin; Raj

s fighting for Ko

supports Rane, has carried on a relentless battle to show that Konkani is a 'boli' (dialect) and not a 'bhasha' (language). Athavle ha

which to him means 'expansionism'. But he has no qualms at all when he says that

ation. Tarun Bharat, published from Belgaum in Karnataka, has taken away 6,000 out of the 18,000-odd Gomantak circulation. Yet Athavl

become more a pamphleteer than a journalist. He often attends the strategy sessions of the KPA. He has at times tried to m

challenge somewhere else. However, the turn he has given to the O Herald has taken its circulation to 12,000 from the 4,000-odd it was se

out through reams of newsprint. And both are accused of polaris

in its Portuguese days - specially towards the fag end of playing the role of being the "only Portuguese language d

ised. What primarily was a caste-fuelled was being fought out along linguistic lines. Many of those who took up these issues - as subsequent events showed - were more keen on cornering a share of the spoils for themselves and their kin, rather than really empowering the commonman (and woman) to utilise a l

his was one issue where the average Catholic reader - who hardly reads Marathi - was largely unable to keep abrest with the thoughts of one side of the debate. To Rajan's credit, he was quick to accept a suggestion from a junior, and decided that the article be carried on the edit page. But if one thought he did this because of the need for a diversity of voices, that was simply untrue. Some days later, a gleeful Rajan informed that it w

the Herald office. He demanded to know how the screaming headline read something to the effect: 'Konkani made official language'. Alemao's criticism (with some validity, even if ironical in the backdrop of his own exclusivist approach

official languages. Each official purpose for which it is to be used would have to be specifically notified, leading to further bickerings. Besides, almost everyone would like to leave the act unimplemented, since it would open up a can

rated dramatically its influence by succeeding to get more than 75,000 people for the Konkani language". Of this, he tried to ma

ategy. His claims of being committed to secularism could be dismissed by critics as little more than a cynical strategy of stoking minority fears, to build a potent constituency, just as some politicians in Goa have done - to convert into a permanent votebank of sorts a large s

of a national newspaper - that local news was of vital importance. To cite a Rajanism, in the form of a blunt directive to the news-desk: "The Rajya Sabha election in Goa is of much greater consequence to use tha

. One can question his obvious strategy of playing on minority fears and building up a minority psychosis. E

y to convince the

annarayan.com site. Making his an issue of freedom of expression, and indicting the man who weeks back graced Rajan's birthday - Manoharbab Parr

ithout their livelihood being threatened." He went on to suggest: "Now is the time for Non-Resident Goans who care, to come to the assistance of journalists in Goa. As an alternative, we could support Rajan Narayan's

eek to use their papers to get undue favours, licences, or whatever are another part of the problem. So are us journalists who don't carry on our job neutrally and without quid-pro-quo motives. But the editors who h

incorporate journalists, promote 'friendly' publications and thus indulge in other means to control opinion. While Rajan Narayan has undeniably been one editor who was willing to say the things others were simply not willing to sa

needs to be taken

countries which Goa had long links with, or had large Goan expat populations. He told his staff something that seems to be beyond the comprehension of many Goan edit

ad clear policy guidelines to work under. Most of our time at least, policies were b

- an attitude which says 'this report has to be there, because it has t

n't seem to believe in having competent persons around him and preferred to work with someone who was less likely to pose a ch

n meant coping wit

tribute a chapter in this book, a senior Goan journalist who has written for a number of national and international publications, misunderstood that the invite was

used this journalist of "not checking the other side of the story". In reality, the firm refused to let anyone come to their demos, unless they were duly introduced by someone already caught in the costly-matress trap. It later turned out that the persons running the operations in Goa were linked to the family of the publisher that brought out a magazine Rajan had earlier worked

ience for this writer was the

very unbecoming of a supposedly democratic society. This writer's feature, focussing Jos with his plusses and minuses, appeared in the weekend magazine section of Herald, then looked after by Ethel da Costa. Retribution was quick to come. A long piece was published, in the same columns which this writer was a contributor to, trying to drag this writer into a fictitiou

nalists, whom he himself ironically had a hand in creating. Today, Rajan's indespensibility to the Herald stems from both a perception, not wholly true,

urnalists are employed in a number of places - scattered across the Gulf, to Singapore, Australia, Canada and beyond! Even for those of us opting to remain back home, the hard work involving in 'pr

helped convince this writer that it's probably worth staying a humble correspondent - possibly even freelance - the rest of one's career, rather than succumb to an ambition tha

ick to highlight criticism of himself, in the paper he headed. His ability to bestow confidence on his juniors helped some to grow. (But, this was upto a point. Also, his

leave the Herald exactly after four years, as planned. (Thanks to statehood, the Deccan Herald decided to have it's first full-time staff correspondent in Goa. Work on the news-desk was fast ceasing to be a challenge,

some of my colleagues pointed to the fact that this writer was one of the few who had been around from Day One, and was known for his attempts to bring out a good product. Paste-up artists would comment, "The day you leave, there

Deccan Herald, a visible sign of relief appeared on his brow. Not only was one not joining the Gomantak Times, then viewed as the

write for other publications. But, since 1995, when one went into full-time freelancing, never did one feel welcome to write for the Herald, whenever Raj

Rajan's fiefdom. Being into freelancing, and wanting to take up the challenge, one wrote a set of 50 or so editorials during one of his periods of extended absences during the 'nineties. This was done at the request of the newspaper management, and the staff apparently appreciated the move. Yet, on his return, and probably realising that churning out this many pieces - that to

ction on a BJP ticket, rather than staying on in journalism. Since one had turned to freelancing, contributing to a local daily soun

bly be known for what he has written. Not for what he made sure didn't surface. In this context, it is perhaps important to put do