included within Goa areas
outside its current boundaries) he envisaged, the rift
between Hindu and Catholic communities in Goa would be
solved peacefully.

Gomantak has played a big role in the development of
Marathi in Goa, by creating two generations of writers
and journalists in the state. In contrast, the Konkani
media failed to create an intellectual constituency in
the state.

In Sunaparant

During my tenure as editor of Sunaparant, between 1989
and 1995, I strived to inject some amount of
professionalism in the newspaper. Unfortunately, I did
not receive the needed support from the stalwarts of
the Konkani movement. They never wanted the Sunaparant
to become a professionally-run publication. My efforts
faced severe opposition and I personally went through
acute stress.

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 letha