Today, there is very little criticism coming up against the ruling BJP government in Goan newspapers. For instance, there has been very muted coverage of some elements in Parrikar's cabinet — like a minister who is rumoured to be pushing illegals into Europe. Another worthy has a reputation of being a ruthless moneylender whose rumored 'sex scandals' could even put Jalgaon to shame, as the BJP leadership is itself known to have once argued.
The kid-glove treatment meted out to the BJP government has also been extended to the extend Sangh parivar, despite the ideological opposition to it in many sections of the Goan society. Parrikar's handing over government schools to unregistered groups of alleged RSS-linked activists barely registers a presence in local discourse even among members of the minority Christian community traditionally opposed to right-wing Hindu politics.
While the reluctance of local newspapers to rattle the ruling politicians is understandable, there is really no reason for correspondents of outstation newspapers to follow suit. But for a couple of honorable exceptions, correspondents with outstation publications too have decided to toe the government line. Unfortunately for Goa, the market is too small to attract the attention of any national or international investor in the media scene.
Most of the quarter-million or so households in Goa who can afford to do so, already buy a newspaper and a new investor can only hope to net a marginal increase in circulation. The failure of The Times of India to penetrate the Goan market is a case in point. With its financial muscle, the Times was best placed to shake up the Goan market. Even while skirting controversial issues, the newspaper could have made an impact with a comprehensive coverage of Goa. But the newspaper clearly did not see it worthwhile to continue and pulled out after a four-year long presence, and 'Goa edition' plans, in the state.
Even the Sakal group, the other outside group to enter Goa, has not been able to figure out the English-language newspaper market here. Having bought over the Gomantak from the Chowgules, the Sakal group does not seem to be interested in making big-ticket investments in the English-language Gomantak Times. As Goa's third English-language daily continues to bleed, there is a very strong possibility that there would be one less player in the English language market in the near future.
One can only hope that increased competition following the entry of foreign publications in India provides enough incentives for future players to dig their heels deeper into the Goan market. Hopefully, national players in the media business and expatriate Goans will see a market in selling quality journalism in Goa.
Chapter 16: An accidental Bhailo
Rahul GoswamiRahul Goswami, one of Goa's most hardworking and innovative outstation correspondent, covered this state for the Business Standard, in the mid-nineties. He is today based in Singapore. On a lighter note, RG says he was offered, several times during his stint in Goa, bribes by various colleagues envious of his posting as inducement to trade places with them. Instead, he went to Bombay to quarrel with newspaper vendors, went to the Gulf to start up a dot-bomb, went to Singapore to learn Mandarin, and is now wondering if those bribes are still on offer.
Arriving to live and work in 'aparanta' — a place beyond the end, as the Sanskrit texts would have us believe, where time stands still — was always going to be a challenge for the conscientious newspaper correspondent. Even when one does not do so blind, as I comforted myself in 1993.
It was Goa Dourada, Golden Goa, Perola do Oriente, Pearl of the East, Roma do Oriente, and other such colourfulness that I was being assigned to. The imagery was breath-taking — corsairs, corruption and conversions. There were heart-warming tales of gruff compassion — whether from the dashing Marathas or their debonair Portuguese rivals. There were edgy accounts of the rivalries of contentious nationalisms, delicious stories of grand thievery, fabulous stories of immoral profligacy, of debauched viceroys who equalled in pomp and splendour the Asian potentates they dealt with.