The Poinguinim bye-elections had its toll on Goa Su-Raj Party. For one, it couldn’t find a courageous body to enter into the fray to give the two national parties the run for their ill-gotten money. Having run out of steam in its mission to convince even a  single die-hard Poinguinkar to accept this ultimate challenge, the President of the GSRP himself offered to give the people the alternative between the two existing candidates of the Congress and the BJP respectively,  provided ten brave and responsible Poinguinkars would sponsor his candidature. This too was asking for too much, until the Party, having had no choice, had  to issue paid, page 3 display advertisements in the local dailies (Herald, GT and the Gomantak)  on the 21^st. September, 2004, this being the second last day for filing of nomination papers. The response being miserable, the Party was resigned to fight for justice, its own way. Ten thousand leaflets that had been printed for mass distribution (English, Romi & Devnagri Konkani), with a small advertising campaign to alert the people of Poinguinim to vote with care to oust the evil designs of RSS-BJP’s Manohar Parrikar through voting against its candidate, Mr. Isidore Fernandes  would be appropriate, given the meager financial capabilities of the Party in the world of money and muscle play at election times. 

The Open Letter written to the people of Poinguinim by the president of the GSRP found no expression in the print media except for its stinted and edited version in the Navhind Time’s CyberVoices column. And of course, its full expression was published, along with the intended advertisement by the Goan Observer (9-15 Oct. edition), the fortnightly newspaper by Rajan Narayan, the  ex-editor of Herald of long standing, which is considered to be the black-sheep of the print news media  in Goa,  mainly for reasons that it does not curry favours with the ruling Parrikar government. 

Come October eleven, I decided to take a short cut, rather than visit each and every newpaperwala’s doors to issue paid advertisements, by visiting Ms. Aditya Agencies, Mapusa,  and issuing  5x1 display advertisements to 5 of the most prominent daily newspapers of Goa, namely Herald, Navhind Times, Gomantak Times, the Daily Gomamtak (marathi) and Sunaprant (nagri konkani). And having paid a hefty amount of Rs. 3860/-, I was satisfied of a job well done, little knowing that I would be in for a shock of my life,  the next morning, the 12^th October,  when I opened the three newspapers that I personally subscribe to. 

Nothing! Nada! Niente! Zilch! Kitem’ch na’m! Kuch Nahim! 

Not one to allow my eyes to fool me, it took me a better part of 15 minutes to scan each and every page of the three newspapers. Nada! Nothing! . It was agony for me to wait until Aditya Agencies opened-up for the day. Expecting to hear “Sorry Sir,  we couldn’t manage to give the ads in time yesterday to appear today, but they will be published tomorrow” excuse, my call  was answered,  instead, to give me laments of regrets that none of the  newspapers would accept the advertisements,  each one asking if the other newspaper had accepted it. When I inquired if a messenger boy was sent to the newspapers with the ads.,  Mr. Aditya confirmed that it was he himself that had done the routine, and apologetically requested me to collect my refund, anytime,  from his office. It was only when I contacted Mr. Aditya again to confirm if  the  'Sunaprant'   had refused to  carry the advertisement too, he confessed that its dynamic marketing manager offered to carry it for the next day only if some responsible person from the GSRP would present it  to the office. 

The concerned advertisement is displayed above, along with the receipt from Ms. Aditya Agencies. 

The Goan public is given to believe that Manohar Parrikar’s  “GAG” on the newspapers vide the Legal  Notices to the Publishers and Editors  has been vacated. The fear exhibited by the Press, even to accept a paid general advice to the people of Poinguinim to shun Isidore Fernandes, the BJP candidate  in the October 13 elections because of his being responsible for having put the voters of Poinguinim to inconvenience and the tax payers  to an unnecessary loss,  for having resigned his seat as the Congress MLA  in the Goa legislative assembly inorder to circumvent the prevailing anti-defection laws to join the BJP, is phenomenal, indeed. This proves that the “GAG” is not vacated at all, but has been pushed down the throath of the Goa Press even harder. 

If the advertisement was against the Congress Party and its candidate  " Mr. Jagdish Acharya “, would the newspapers exhibit similar restraint and knee buckling fear? I certainly do not think so. 

The moot question  I ask Goa is: 

Shall we or shall we not bury the Goan Press which has died a long time ago, for sporting a “crippled backbone”, lest it makes our lives miserable with a  terrible and insufferable stink? 

Your answer shall be anxiously awaited.

Floriano Lobo

President,

GSRP.