14th installament
Rajan Narayan MEMOIRS OF AN UNDERDOG JOURNALIST!
“I have no sacred cows!’ `I’m the goonda with the pen!”

By Rajan Narayan

IT is only when I moved to Goa in October 1983, as editor of the O-Heraldo, that I was exposed to the full force of political pressure and business compulsion. The publisher, the late Antonio Caetano Fernandes, owned a stationary and printing business and was not exposed too much to political pressure. His sons John and Raul Fernandes were too young. Never mind that Raul Fernandes in particular very quickly learned the clout that ownership of the newspaper brings.
But for the first decade of the English edition of the OHeraldo, I had to single handedly cope with all the political and business pressures. Since the English edition of OHeraldo was a newspaper and the owners had limited funds there was pressure to make the paper economically viable. As over time the paper became more and more popular the pressure too mounted more and more.
I had positioned OHeraldo as the voice of the Catholic community which represented 40% of the Goan population at that time. My publisher then who was AC Fernandes came under pressure to sack me within three months of our launching the English edition of the OHeraldo. I had carried an anchor piece on how interference by Vijaya Devi, wife of the Chief Minister Pratapsingh Raoji, led to the sacking of the director of the Kala Academy, Damu Kenkre.
Pratapsingh Rane was furious and shouted at AC Fernandes at the funeral of the late VM Salgaocar. My OHeraldo publisher was summoned to meet Chief Minister Pratapsingh Raoji Rane and asked if his wife did not even have the authority to suggest a befitting costume for the Indian music choir of the Kala Academy. Who was “this Rajan Narayan who had no respect for the chief minister?” AC Fernandes was asked to sack me.
To his eternal credit my publisher AC Fernandes stood up to Pratapsingh Raoji Rane. Fernandes told Rane it was he who paid my salary. That he would decide whom he should retain or sack. This worked in my favor as my furious publisher told me not to spare Pratapsingh Raoji Rane. I had carte blanche to criticize the ruling Pratapsingh Raoji Rane government. Which was very good for the growth of the OHeraldo but not unfortunately for its financial health. As a consequence of the confrontation between the Chief Minister Rane and the OHeraldo, we stopped getting government advertising. Fortunately, since OHeraldo was targeted at the influential minority Catholic community we got more than our share of birth and death advertising. We also got almost the entire lot of advertisements released by the tiatr producers. The owners of the Catholic business houses and notably the CMM group ardently supported the new OHeraldo newspaper.
Political pressure intensified when the Bharatiya Janata Party under Manohar Parrikar came to power in 2000. Manohar Parrikar became chief minister after overthrowing the rebel government of Francisco Sardinha. Parrikar was totally intolerant of any criticism. Parrikar made every attempt to win my support as the publisher had given me a free hand. In any case AC Fernandes was deeply suspicious of the BJP. Parrikar invited me twice for dinner during a “honeymoon” soon after he became the chief minister of Goa. It is another matter that International Center Goa forwarded the bills to my basement flat home at Dona Paula to pay up.
The real flashpoint came when Manohar Parrikar issued a legal notice to all editors and publishers of newspapers in Goa. The Economic Development Corporation at the instigation of Parrikar had published a White Paper blaming leader of the opposition, Luizinho Faleiro, for the collapse of financial body. Luizinho Faleiro in turn brought out a Black Paper alleging that the brother-in-law of Parrikar had benefited from a very favorable one-time settlement, the brother-in-law Rayu Sancoalkar had borrowed a large amount of money for his company Simchem. The EDC had not only waved the interest and compound interest but part of the principal also.
When the media carried Luzinho Falerio’s charges Manohar Parrikar was furious. On his behalf his lawyer Narendra Savoikar issued a legal notice to all editors and publishers. The legal notice barred the media from carrying any information or reports about the chief minister’s family members.
By that time the younger son of the OHeraldo publisher, Raul Fernandes, had taken over as the managing director. Raul wanted a casino license from Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. Raul directed me to publish the legal notice sent to all newspapers without comment. This was unacceptable to me as I could not keep quiet on a blatant attempt to stifle press freedom.
Fortunately for m,e the entire med condemned the legal notice sent by Manohar Parrikar. Consequently, Manohar Parrikar was forced to apologize to the media. But by that time Raul Fernandes had discovered how to use the OHeraldo for his personal purposes. For the first tim,e politicians started going over my head to Raul Fernandes. Among the worst of the lot were Luizinho Faleiro Falerio and Alexio Sequeira.
At one stage I even got a written note from Raul Fernandes directing me that nothing negative should appear against Luzinho Falerio, Alexio Sequeria and half-a-dozen others. My final decision to quit OHeraldo came in 2003 when due to increasing interference by Raul Fernandes in the day-to-day functioning of the OHeraldo my life as an editor became a nightmare.
I had naively believed that when I started my own independent weekly – the Goan Observer — I would be free of all management pressures. Alas, I discovered very soon that the biggest pressure was really finding enough funds to keep my own Goan Observer alive, we had to be extra-cautious about attacking our potential advertisers.
Fortunately for us, by the time the Goan Observer had established itself a little more prosperously, Digambar Kamat had taken over as the chief minister. Since the Goan Observer favored the Congress as a much better secular alternative, we got the support of the Digambar Kamat government. We however made the fatal mistake of putting all our eggs in the Congress basket. The result was that when the BJP and Manohar Parrikar came back to power they took savage revenge on Goan Observer.
The decline of the Goan Observer co-incited with Narendra Modi’s coming to power at the Centre in 2014. The double-engine government of the BJP government of Goa and the Modi government at the Centre crushed the spine of the Goan Observer.
It has been my historical experience that no media company should rely on a publication alone for survival. Goan Observer survived and flourished because we diversified into desktop publishing at a very early stage. We accidently discovered the rich NRI market for book publishing when Ben Antao, a Canada-based Goan writer asked us to publish his collections of articles on Goa. It is very expensive for Goans to get their books printed and published abroad in Canada or the United Kingdom. It is much cheaper to get the books printed and published in Goa.
We were able to print and publish books by Ben Antao at less than 50% of the cost which would be incurred back in Canada. We in Goa even at 50% managed to make a handsome profit to stay alive and kicking. After Ben Antao we published half-a-dozen books for Goans Mario Sequeira and Irineur Gonsalves. Our most successful desktop publishing venture is the autobiography of the late PG Kakodkar, former chairman of the State Bank of India, titled “My 40 Years with the SBI.” We helped edit, design, print and publish the book. The print order was a massive 20,000 since PG Kakodkar persuaded every one of the 10,000 branches of the SBI buy two copies each.
I recall that we made almost Rs10 lakh from the publication of the memoirs of PG Kakodkar. We were also fortunate in being commissioned by Dattaraj Salgaocar to research and produce a book on the history of the Opinion Poll — “The Triumph of Secularism.”
Subsequently I was also given the privilege of preparing a well researched book on the last phase of the Liberation struggle from 1926-1961. I must mention my first book in Goa, namely Goencho Saib, a biography of St Francis Xavier. When I was very ill following the brutal assault on me during the Dayanand Narvekar molestation scam, the late AC Fernandes used to take me to the Shrine of St Francis Xavier at the Bom Jesus Basilica to pray for my quick recovery.
When I returned to Goa after my steroid detox phase I was physically weak and mentally exhausted and advised to take it easy for a while. I was persuaded to research and write a biography of St Francis Xavier. The timing was right as the exposition was to be held in 1994. May be it was the miracle of Goencho Saib that a young woman who had experience in doing books had come to Goa for a break.
Laxmi Iyer came to me looking for a job. I took her help to research the life and times of St Francis Xavier. The Xavier’s Centre for Historical Research had a wealth of material of St Francis Xavier. A friend of mine, Chitra Kudchodkar, was an artist, married to Dr Jayesh Kudchodkar, and she agreed to do the illustrations. The book was put together by my old friends Diana and Edwin Pinto and priced at Rs150.
The response for the book was tremendous. It helped that elections were around the corner and there was bulk purchases by many Catholic MLAs who were friendly with me. The first edition of Goencho Saib sold out much before the exposition. We brought out a second edition in 2004. I am now planning a third edition in time for the 2024 Exposition starting November 21 later this year.
I may also mention that in the 1994 exposition I was privileged to be invited to briefly carry the casket of St Francis Xavier from the Sacristy of Bom Jesus Basilica to the entrance. Every ten years the casket carrying the sacred relics of St Francis Xavier are taken from the Bom Jesus Basilica to the Se Cathedral where it was put on display for 40 days for believers to pay their respects.
By the grace of Goencho Saib I hope everyone including Dr Henry Falcao, the Convenor of the exposition, Governor of Goa Dr Sreedharan Pillai and Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, who is the chairman of the Exposition Committee, Alexio Sequeira, who is the Deputy chairman, and Exposition commissioner Sandeep Jacques, will help me to produce and promote a third edition of Goencho Saib.