The historical photo from Goa, shot by Sandeep Naik, then with The Navhind Times, on the banks of the Mandovi https://www.flickr.com/photos/27593913@N00/50082616773/in/dateposted-public/
By Camil Parkhe camilpar...@gmail.com Scoops come suddenly and only rarely in the life of a journalist. But that's what makes the event unforgettable! That morning, a tight security had been maintained at the Panjim Secretariat and the areas surrounding it. At that time, in the early 1980s, the sixteenth century Adilshah Palace on the banks of the river Mandovi was still being used as the state Secretariat, after the Liberation of Goa. It was the official headquarters of the Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, his five-or-six associate ministers and all senior government officials. In spite of this, security was not tight at the Goa Secretariat at that time. When the chief minister, ministers and senior government officials entered or left, they would be saluted by the four to six armed security guards at the entrance. The rest of the time, when ordinary people moved in and out, there was not even a simple inquiry made. Yes, there used to be somewhat tight security during the Goa Assembly sessions though. Yet, even in the absence of any assembly gathering, on August 9, 1984, there was one special reason for the tightened security at the Secretariat. Student unions had started an agitation against the Goa government's decision to start private, capitation-fee based vocational colleges in Goa. An educational institution from Andhra Pradesh had sought permission to start private engineering colleges in Goa. Permission had been granted by Harish Narayan Prabhu Zantye, Goa's then education minister who was also known as the Cashewnut Baron, because of his family business in that field. The student unions had learnt that the Andhra institute had also purchased land for a college in Zantaye's Bicholim assembly constituency. However, student unions were adamantly opposed to allowing private vocational colleges being set up in Goa. Sometime earlier, nearby Maharashtra had taken a decision to allow the opening of medical, engineering and other private vocational colleges. The decision by the then Chief Minister Vasantdada Patil had a historic and far-reaching impact on the education sector there. This led to the privatization of vocational education. Goa's student unions were of the view that the government should run its own vocational colleges, giving admission entirely on the basis of merit. It was also argued that the hefty fees of private vocational colleges would not be affordable to poor students. Leaders of the All Goa Students Union (AGSU) Satish Sonak and Manoj Joshi, and leaders of Progressive Students Union (PSU) Desmond D'Costa, Sandesh Prabhudesai and others, were leading the student movement. Since the government of Congress Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane had come to power in 1980, the role of playing the Opposition in the Goa Assembly had been left to Ramakant Khalap and Babuso Gaonkar of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. Apart from that, other agitations and protests had not been carried out by the Opposition. This was true of the ramponkars' agitation (by non-mechanised traditional fishermen) in Goa in the 1970s and 1980s, the campaign for Konkani to be made the state language, and for Goa to be granted statehood.b The leadership of these movements, in fact, had come from the people. The support of some political leaders and the Catholic Church, to some extent, had been crucial though. This was definitely not the first time that student organisations had staged an agitation in Goa. Earlier, around 1978, the All Goa Students' Union (AGSU) had agitated for a 50 per cent blanket concession on bus tickets for all students travelling in Goa. At that time I was studying in the twenfth standard at the Dhempe College, Miramar. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party Chief Minister Shashikala Kakodkar's government was in power at that time. There were only private buses in Goa at that time and the powerful lobby of the owners of these buses was strongly opposed to giving a 50 percent discount to students on bus tickets. However, due to this agitation, the demand of fifty percent concession of the students was accepted. Students continue to get this benefit till this day. Shortly afterwards, Chief Minister Kakodkar's government collapsed. In 1981, I joined The Navhind Times as a Campus Reporter. While covering the news, I simultaneously did my M.A. in Philosophy at the Centre for Post-Graduate Instruction and Research on the 18th June Road, Panjim, run by the University of Bombay. So, in effect, I was playing a double-role as a student and a reporter. Due to my closeness with the student leaders, one day when the agitating students suddenly took over the Goa Legislative Assembly Hall, I was the only reporter present there. One of the student leaders managed to reach the first floor of the Secretariat by ascending the wooden staircase, covered by a red carpet, going past some armed security guards. Following him, some 40-50 more students climbed the stairs in the same manner and I too entered the assembly hall with those students. There was a commotion. The Goa Police officials were shocked to learn that students protesting against private vocational colleges had stormed into the Goa Legislative Assembly Hall and had locked the door from the inside. Other reporters and photographers then came into the hall later. Within a short time, a large number of police had gathered at the Goa Secretariat, attached to the Goa Assembly in those days. But the question was how to get the protesting students out of the Assembly Hall. The late advocate Satish Sonak and other students who were studying law at that time knew enough of their subject to realise that only the Speaker was empowered to take decisions relating to the Legislative Assembly. Even though the assembly session was not in session at that time, the police could not enter the assembly hall or remove the students without the permission of the Speaker. Only the Speaker, through his marshals or the police, could order the protesters out. Satish Sonak's younger brother, Mahesh Sonak, who is now a Mumbai High Court judge, was studying in his first year of B.Sc. at Dhempe College at that time. Fortunately, within minutes, Speaker Luis Proto Barbosa himself entered the assembly hall and the protesting students calmed down. The protesters did not vandalize any government property. The Speaker was not very angry. Photographers like Sunil Naik, Ambaji Kamat and others, who had entered the hall following Speaker Barbosa, were barred from taking photographs in the hall, by the Speaker's wave of hand. The agitating leaders told him that their act of entering the assembly hall was only symbolic, and meant to draw attention to the demands of the protesting students. The students said they were ready to leave the hall after symbolically raising their issue, but they demanded that the police assure Speaker Barbosa that they would not file any case against the students. The protesters, who had briefly taken control of the assembly hall, were now demanding "safe passage" from the Speaker. Speaker Barbosa immediately agreed to the demand. However, he said that the protesters should leave the Secretariat without making any fuss. In a few moments, all the protesting students left the Secretariat. As I hurried out with them, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and CID) Barde, with the help of other security guards, was pushing cupboards to a safe distance from the protesters. I noticed that Barde-saheb was in plain clothes. As we all descended to the entrance of the Secretariat, we saw that the Secretariat was completely surrounded by police with batons on all sides. However, there was no possibility of any trouble while the students walked out, as the Speaker had assured them a safe passage. The next day, I came from the Secretariat Press Room to The Navhind Times office at half past noon, when Barde-saheb came out of the door and was sitting in a police jeep parked there. Like on the previous day, we caught each other's eyes again, but only for a moment. Changing direction, the jeep headed for the police headquarters next to our office. So I guessed what was cooking on the first floor of my office. News Editor M.M. Mudaliar later informed that Barde had met him. "Camil, he was telling me that you play the role of a student activist more than that of a reporter. However, I made it clear to him that, being a good news reporter, you already knew what was going to happen." * * * Police officials had taken full care of security on the subsequent days, as the incident of the takeover of the Assembly had taken place a few days earlier. I was standing at the very corner of the Secretariat, next to the Press Room, close to the life-sized statue of the father of hynotism Abbe de Faria. All the police around were on a high alert. And for a while no one knew what had happened. There was chaos, here, there and everywhere. Police had started beating the students when they saw them walking towards the Secretariat. I was watching, as young boys and girls were running in the direction of the waiting policemen and the police were chasing them. The Mandovi river is just across the road in front of the Old Secretariat. While some students were running on that small road and sidewalk, they were surrounded by ten or twelve policemen on the bank of the Mandvoi. Behind those frightened young women was the Mandovi River and in front were police armed with lathis. There was no other way for the young women to escape. There were no female constables in that police force either. One person caught my attention in this mess. Sandeep Naik, a photographer for our Navhind Times, was taking note of the plight of the beleaguered youth. Sandeep, in his usual attire of jeans and white Nehru shirt, was capturing the front view from different angles. Within minutes of the action, the road in front and the sidewalk by the river were clear. There were only a few slippers and sandals left behind. By the time I reached Sandeep, he was sweating. When we both came face to face, Sandeep was flipping his camera over and over again, making sure everything was all right. I could understand his shock. In those pre-digital photography days, it would be known only after the roll had been developed whether his photos of the police action had been clicked properly or not. When the police had started their lathi-charge, Sandeep and other photographers and reporters like me were present at different places. But we had both noticed by now that the girl-students had been beaten by the police. When Sandeep came to the office of The Navhind Times at around 2.30 pm that day, he was very excited. He had come from the photo studio with five or six black and white prints. Editor Bikram Vohra spread all those prints on his desk, while news editor M.M. Mudaliar, we reporters, and all those present at the desk, gathered at the editor's cabin. The beating of the college students would make it to the eight-column story of Page One of the next day's issue of The Navhind Times and the picture of Sandeep's police action would go on to say more than the text of the news. * * * The next day, the photo printed in six columns in the twin dailies The Navhind Times and its sister publication, the Marathi Navprabha, made history! The Mumbai, Delhi and other editions of The Indian Express across the country soon used the same photo on Page One with Sandeep's permission and his byline! As a result, the Goa government was embarrassed. The main result was that there was a nationwide discussion about the outcry and intense opposition of Goa's students towards private vocational colleges. Finally, one day, that educational institution from Andhra Pradesh simply rolled up its sleeves and left Goa! * * * A few months after the photo was released nationally, Sandeep Naik met the then South Goa MP Eduardo Faleiro. As soon as Sandeep introduced himself, the MP shook his hand and said in a complaining tone, “Patrao (boss), you have put me in trouble! Those photos of yours spoilt the name of Goa." Faleiro told Sandeep that, after seeing a photo of police beating girls in Goa, the then Congress general secretary and MP Rajiv Gandhi had asked him, "What is going on in an advanced region like Goa!" In Goa, the Congress government was then headed by the Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane. Within three months of the meeting between Rajiv Gandhi and Falero, Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister and Falero became the Minister of State for External Affairs in his cabinet. A couple of years after the incident, The Navhind Times editor Bikram Vohra moved on to Dubai to take on a major assignment at the Gulf News. Vohra took Sandeep Naik and five other journalists from The Navhind Times to Dubai. When Vohra urged me to come to Dubai too, he and my friends were very surprised that I declined the offer. Vohra is still settled in the Gulf region. Sandeep Naik returned to Goa two years ago, after working as a photographer in Dubai for three decades. He now spends a few months a year in Goa and the rest of the month with his wife and daughter in Australia. We haven't had any contact in the last few decades, but Facebook brought about our reunion. However, the identity of Sandeep Naik, a news photographer who took a photo of the police beating of the girls on the banks of the Mandovi thirty-eight years ago, is still intact. Incidentally, Sebastian D'Souza, then working in the Mumbai Mirror, is known as the photographer of the Pakistani terrorist Kasab at the Mumbai railway station. Scoops come so suddenly and so seldom in the life of a journalist, and that event in their own and society's whole life becomes an unforgettable thing. Other English and Marathi articles by Camil Parkhe can be read on the following blog https://camilopark.blogspot.com https://www.aksharnama.com/client/article_detail/4382 * * * Camil Parkhe was a journalist in the Goa of the 1980s. Goanet Reader is compiled and translated by Frederick Noronha