In my opinion, the major requirements for a successful daily newspaper are: a state-of-the-art establishment, a steadfast commitment to the reader, comprehensive coverage of all sections of the society, and the ultimate aim of becoming the voice of the Goan populace.
Sadly, all these factors remained low on the priority of Konkani protagonists. Professionalism was never on their agenda. With an eye on the leadership of the Konkani movement, the likes of Bhembre used the newspaper to carry out attacks against all his opponents during the elections to the Konkani Bhasha Mandal
Bhembre has still not given up. He is now on the advisory board of the soon-to-be-revamped Sunaparant. This move obviously suggests the intention of halting the progress of the restructured newspaper.
When I took over as an Editor of Sunaparant, Uday Bhembre, then editor, was asked to vacate his post. Not surprisingly, this angered Bhembre. Some of his friends, who had been pampered with free publicity, continuously worked against me.
To illustrate how this worked, one can cite here the example of columnist Dilip Borkar whose satirical column "Borkari", on various ills plaguing Goa, gained all-round popularity. Borkar had even even taken humorous digs at me through his writings. But, that apart the column was a masterpiece as regards its content and the lucidity of the language was concerned.
But it hurt a number of people, and added them to my list of enemies. Uday Bhembre, on taking charge as the Editor, stopped this column and replaced it with another one penned by one of his supporters. However it did not find favor with the reader and failed miserably.
Much of my work at Sunaparant — like a supplement on business, in-depth analysis of important events, expert views and analysis by experts in relation to important events, a well compiled Sunday edition — continues with little change.
Dattaraj Salgaocar himself admitted that Sunaparant had become popular with readers, but reactions from politicians made him restless. It may be recalled that Sunaparant had mercilessly attacked Ravi Naik for usurping the chief ministerial gaddi (throne).
Dattaraj, being close to Naik, could not digest this criticism. What seems to have irked Salgaocar was Sunaparant's highlighting, on its front-page, the news of the nomination of Vasant Pilgaonkar (a family friend and close aide-cum-adviser of Ravi Naik) as the Goa Public Service Commission chief.
Strongly retaliating against this, Dattaraj called for a meeting at Pilgaonkar's residence. And Pilgaonkar, at this meeting, lectured me on journalism. A decision to name Uday Bhembre as the Chief Editor was finalised. Interestingly, Bhembre is a relative of Pilgaonkar and close to Ravi Naik.