Wednesday 13 June 2007

THE NAVHIND TIMES -- "THE NEWSPAPER YOU (SIMPLY) CAN'NOT' TRUST"

Its time to imitate the ostrich again.
The next time you read an editorial or a news story in The Navhind Times (TNT) crying hoarse about the decline in ethical standards, morality and death of probity, just ask them... Hey why didnt you guys report the Dr Vaman Naik story, which was reported by every newspaper in Goa barring TNT and Navprabha.
Vaman, TNT's career counselling columnist (and principal of S S Dempo college of commerce, Panaji) suddenly jumped out of his allotted column space and fell face first into the news-pages this week.
The likely answer you would get from TNT and Navprabha journos would be 'We dont publish just about anything. We aren't rags'. And they are quite right in one way... TNT doesn't qualify as a rag as the newspaper uses the finest newsprint in Goa, but in every other way, she is quite the tired devdasi, abused by two generations and serviced on the sly by its general/advertising managers and editors.
The predicament faced by Navprabha is even worse. She's the devdasi's daughter watching on... knowing they would come for her soon.
We were talking about ostriches now... You guys obviously know how ostriches hide their head in the sand, thinking no one would see em.
This is precisely what happens whenever shit hits the Dempo ceiling. Both the newspapers bury their heads until the Dempo's scrub their ceilings clean, or just plaster it with money. Remember the time mining towns in Noth Goa were hit by floods. An entire village was washed out near Pissurlem. While every newspaper reported this fact, both these newspaper did not carry a word about it. It was a flood for god sake... They ignored a flood that had raged in Goa for the first times in years.
If these guys had existed in Biblical times, these guys would have probably called Noah a fool and called his expedition an ocean cruise. No no... perhaps there would have been a lip service gesture of some sort... Like those whimsical tree-planting drives they conduct in mining affected areas... What they'd give Noah... the only thing that comes to our mind would be a barge... They would have lent him a barge to stuff his live cargo with.
Goodness me... we are distracted today aren't we? Back to business...
From what we read in the other papers, a lecturer has accused Dr Vaman Naik of sexual harrassment. Her complaint to the college management was not attended to for three months, after which the lecturer claims she was forced to put the issue in public domain.
These two newspapers have completely skipped the issue because the newspapers and the college are run by the same family. The mighty Dempo's. Chances are you will not see the same story on the TV news outfit Goa365 too, cause it's director Kedar Dhume has his finger's stuck in the Dempo pie and a close relative of the Dempo's is also alleged to be a director in the venture.
For the third day running, both the newspaper TNT and Navprabha have not reported on the issue, fooling its readers, by imitating the ostrich.
This is the second time that the news has been a direct victim, following accusations of sexual misconduct by employees of the Dempo Group of companies. The first instance involved the molestation of a minor by The Navhind Times Editor Arun Sinha (who is reported to have molested and beaten his minor servant at his residence), who continues to serve as editor after the incident.
To get a hang of the Dr Vaman Naik sexual harassment case, read the following story...

Lectureres constitute action committee
http://oheraldo.in/node/25479


HERALD REPORTERPANJIM, JUNE 12 - Lecturers of the prominent city college at Altinho from where a lady lecturer has complained of alleged sexual harassment by her principal are rallying behind the former, even as Tuesday witnessed high drama with the vice-principal, who is supporting the lecturer, complained to the police he was threatened by a man close to the principal.
The threatening episode led the lecturers of the S S Dempo College of Commerce & Economics to come together in a meeting at Hotel Manoshanti in the afternoon to discuss the issue. The meeting was attended by Dr Pramod Salgaonkar, Chairperson of Goa State Women’s Commission.Addressing a press conference later in the day at Hotel Manoshanti, the vice-principal Pravin Gaonkar informed, “Today an action committee, which will be headed by Advocate Meera Merdekar, has been formed to look into the matter.”Gaonkar has lodged a complaint at the Town Police against an ex-student of the college, for threatening him in the college premises in the presence of another lecturer, Augusto Pinto. Our sole demand to the college management is it should appoint a full-fledged committee at the earliest so that the lecturer gets justice and during inquiry the principal, Dr Vaman Naik, should be suspended or sent on leave, he asserted.
Merdekar, who is the chairperson of the action committee, said, “We will submit a memorandum to the management demanding an appropriate committee as per the Vishaka case judgement guidelines.” “If the management fails to look into the matter seriously, then the action committee will take an appropriate decision for further course of action. The issue will become public and spread all over Goa. The time frame has not been given to the management; we will decide upon that soon,” Merdekar cautioned.
Eleven of the 15 lecturers of the college were present at the press conference. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad, students’ wing of BJP and the All Goa Students’ Forum have extended their support to the lecturers

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

are you serious about this? No wonder we dont read anything on the Navhind on the Vaman Naik case

17 June 2007 at 21:00  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Absolutely true !!
What is more dissappointing is that inspite of a clear verdict by the Goa State Womens Commission
http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=3121&cid=26
the Dempo management is trying their level best to cover up the issue and protect the guilty.

24 October 2007 at 04:25  

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