Purshottam Kakodkar, Uday Bhembre and his group led the movement against me. With the help of Congress politician, and former chief minister, Ravi Naik, they managed to have Uday Bhembre installed as Chief Editor of the daily. Unfortunately, Uday Bhembre never had the time for this newspaper. He just concentrated on how to sabotage my attempts to professionalise the newspaper.
During my tenure, Sunaparant had the best of supplements on Diwali and other occasions. We even managed to bring out special evening editions during Iran-Iraq war. Sunaparant's campaigns during the agitations against the Konkan Railway and Nylon 6,6 projects was followed up by other newspapers in Goa.
We even started a fund raising drive during the 1990 Shiroda canoe disaster and helped restart the ferry service. In addition, more than 20 books compiling different articles, investigative series, fiction and a dictionary was published during my tenure.
Only readers will tell whether during his eight years tenure Uday Bhembre had taken up even a single issue and fought it out till the end. Readers acutely felt the non-professionalism of the product during Bhembre's period.
Bhembre held the position as Chief Editor for eight years later when the newspaper had but lost all its base. Sunaparant is owned by a mine owner and hence protection of corporate interests, rather than the fostering of Konkani, has played a big role in Bhembre's continuation as Chief Editor at Sunaparant.
In the end, Bhembre had to go after running a series of editorials against Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. Until then, the owners of Sunaparant were oblivious of Bhembre's lethargy, inefficiency and inactivity that took an immense toll on the newspaper. An example: during his tenure, Bhembre failed to call even a single meeting of staff reporters, let alone stringers.
Once again, Dattaraj Salgaocar, owner of Sunaparant, has recently made up his mind to re-build and re-launch the newspaper on a commercial basis. This is a welcome step. Whatever may be the language of newspaper — the language is merely a tool for communication — its success depends on the information provided, in-depth analysis and its commitment to important issues.
In an effort to make Sunaparant a 'mouthpiece' for Konkani, Bhembre seems to have overlooked all these issues. This is precisely why Bhembre had to seek the support of a newspaper like The Navhind Times to counter the likes of Jaisingrao Rane, despite heading Sunaparant himself.
Needless to add, such incidents have proved detrimental to the cause of Konkani. Almost 45 years ago, Konkani protagonists had to depend on the crutches of Marathi newspapers to enhance their cause. The situation is no better today, largely due to the apathetic nature of the leaders of the Konkani movement.
Vital ingredients