GOA’S EDITORS-4 By Valmiki Faleiro Late-1960s. Goa’s monopoly English daily got too hot for the Sequeiras, the opposition UGP leaders. ‘Papa’ and ‘Baba’ Sequeira set to start their own daily, the ‘Goa Monitor.’ They ill advisedly decided on a tabloid format, instead of the regular broadsheet, but that is another story. Goa Monitor’s top brass was rare. Comparisons are odious, but I cannot resist drawing one here. The MGP-UGP-Janata Party candidates from Calangute in the 1977 elections had a common trait: only difference was on the time of the day each would hit the bottle. One began early morning, the other at noon, the third by late evening. MGP’s early bird won the worm and became Minister; UGP’s man whose cheer began at noon came second; the soberest brought up the rear. Drinking patterns, uncanny results! The top three at ‘Goa Monitor’ – Publisher, Editor, Chief Reporter – markedly resembled Calangute’s trinity. Publisher was the early bird, Editor felt thirsty at lunchtime, Chief Reporter by dinner. The result was a delectable potpourri of 100% Goan tabloid journalism. Unfortunately, despite the highly talented team, this uneven competition to the monopoly newspaper soon faded out. After ‘Goa Monitor’ shut, Jagdish Rao ran his own tabloid, ‘The Blade.’ That, too, didn’t live long. Tabloids, then as now, were regarded as scandal sheets. Times are changing. Goa’s runaway corruption enabled a tabloid survive some time now. It takes a mercenary Ed, who publicly rents and rants about his dungeon-like “basement flat” and privately passes the hat to buy himself better accommodation. Judge his measure of success when, at the last of his ‘multiple’ 60th birthday celebrations – at 5-star hotels and Kala Academy, on different days – he facilely raised Twenty Lakhs from people who must have had a lot to hide, with Chief Minister Digambar Kamat himself promising the deficit of five lakhs. My thoughts strayed. True competition to Goa’s monopoly English newspaper arrived in 1978, when Margao’s ‘West Coast Times’ (WCT) took off. It was a modern newspaper by Goan yardsticks, from production processes to well-staffed editorial talent. MG Bailur, a Dakshin Kannada Konknni-speaking grandfatherly figure, pulled out from retirement, was Editor. Younger YM Hegde, with FPJ veteran PR Menon as News Editor, ably assisted Bailur. On writing skills, Bailur had no peer among Goa’s English-segment Editors … even if grandiloquent, and wrote in such classic Victorian that a single sentence could run into 200 words. His rare eloquence turned an abstract notion into so tangible a sentence one could touch it. Bailur had a combined mastery over words, construction, punctuation – and their seamless flow. Within months, WCT was well on the potential to its proprietor’s pan-Konkan dream. But for the proprietor’s reliance on bad managerial advice, WCT could’ve blazed a path-breaking trail in Goa’s journalistic history. The monopoly paper, meanwhile, brought in a young Editor. Bikram Vohra came with new ideas, infused new life into the creaking Old Lady, and, typically, ran a Page-1, Column-8 feature called the *Ninth Column.* (It was later nicknamed “Fifth Column,” for reasons we shall shortly see.) Bikram was an ex-Indian Express hand. Its fledgling Ahmedabad edition was just unable to match the ToI. Ramnath Goenka marched the resourceful Bikram to Ahmedabad. As Resident Ed, Bikram’s trademark gimmickry soon became legend. Within days, he had the town painted red, with posters that screamed, *KEEP AHEAD OF THE TIMES, READ THE EXPRESS.* Classically Bikram. In Goa, Bikram was even-handed with the warring Congress factions, led by Babu Naik and Dr. Willy. Babu was related to both Bikram’s proprietor and publisher. When asked to bend, Bikram inexplicably went overboard, with a full-throated war cry against Willy. To people like Dr. Willy and his Sancho Panza, Govind Panvelkar, Bikram turned ‘Chakram,’ aka ‘Fifth Columnist.’ Nonetheless, Chakram had earned his place in history. He demonstrated that a 16-year boy could run faster than a 60-year-old donkey. Retired or near-retirement Editors became history. Young guys like Ashwin Tombat and Sujoy Gupta became the order of the day … for a refreshing change! I’ll wind up the subject with “one for the road.” Of Goa’s three English dailies, one hired a young Goan as editor (not Derek Almeida.) One day, a scandal spilled that an unnamed Ed (between the three) molested his maidservant the previous night. Our hero’s paper killed that news item. Others carried it. The needle of public suspicion naturally swiveled our hero’s way … until days later, when it became clear it was not he but another from the trio (whose own paper had carried the report) was the culprit. Our hero was only obeying the dictum that dog doesn’t eat dog! (Concludes.) (ENDS) The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at: http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330 ============================================================================== The above article appeared in the March 16, 2008 edition of the Herald, Goa
