Ramnath Goenka
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| Born: | April 3, 1904 Darbhanga, Bihar. |
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| Died: | October 5, 1991 Mumbai, Maharastra |
| Occupation: | media businessman |
| Spouse: | Moongibai Goenka |
| Website: | The Indian Express |
Ramnath Goenka (April 3, 1904 – October 5, 1991) was a freedom fighter and newspaper baron of India. He launched The Indian Express, a broadsheet daily, India's first national newspaper published from multiple locations.
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[edit] Early Life
Ramnath Goenka (April 3, 1904 – October 5, 1991) was born in Darbhanga district of Bihar. He completed his primary education in Varanasi. At the age of 15, he came to Chennai to learn the ropes of the business by venturing into the trade of yarn and jute. He was married to Moongibai.
In 1932, he took over the loss-making Madras edition of The Free Press Journal and drove the delivery van himself to dispatch the papers. He founded the Indian Express in 1936, and in 1941, he was elected President of the National Newspaper Editors’ Conference. Following this, both the Indian Express and Ramnath Goenka openly challenged the British Raj.
In 1948, Daily Tej partnered with Ram Nath Goenka to publish Indian News Chronicle, an English daily, from New Delhi. After the death of Lala Deshbandhu Gupta, Ramnath Goenka converted it as The Indian Express.
Ramnath Goenka is considered the first and a true press baron of India. He would always be remembered for his role during the "Emergency" in India and his crusade against Indira Gandhi. R. Ramakrishnan who used to work with him was also hailed by Jayaprakash Narayan for organising meetings against the emergency. His bitter fight against the business tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani is still remembered.
His critics believe that his passion for politics was the fire that led the newspapers from Indian Express Group on a blazing trail.
Goenka had a son B. D. Goenka who was slated to take over the Indian Express. He, however, passed away in a tragic accident. Ramnath never got along well with Saroj Goenka, his son's widow and since B. D. and Saroj had no children, the Indian Express Group was bereft of a direct heir. Goenka was averse of making his very capable daughter-in-law Saroj as an heir to his media empire.
Ramnath had other children. He had a daughter named Krishna who was married to A. M. Khaithan of the Calcutta Khaithan's; who are the worlds largest tea producers and battery manufacturer's through the ownership of Williamson Magor. [1]. Vivek Khaitan(who eventually was made heir after a change of name to Vivek Goenka (now Viveck Goenka). Another of Ramnath's daughter married in to the Sonthailia family in Chennai. Her son Manoj Kumar Sonthaila runs the The New Indian Express Group based in Chennai.
[edit] The Battle against Dhirubhai Ambani
At one point in time, Ramnath Goenka was a friend of Dhirubhai Ambani. Ramnath Goenka was also considered to be close with Nusli Wadia. On many occasions, Ramnath Goenka tried to intervene between the two warring factions and bring an end to the enmity. At one occasion, Ramnath Goenka is believed to have said "Nusli is an Englishman. He cannot handle Ambani. I am a bania. I know how to finish him" [1]
As the days passed by The Indian Express, a broadsheet daily published by him carried a series of articles against Reliance Industries and Dhirubhai in which they claimed that Dhirubhai was using unfair trade practices to maximise the profits. Ramnath Goenka did not use his staff at the Indian Express to investigate the case but assigned his close confidant, advisor and chartered accountant S. Gurumurthy for this task. Apart from S. Gurumurthy, another journalist Maneck Davar who was not on the rolls of Indian Express started contributing stories. Jamnadas Moorjani, a businessman opposed to the Ambanis was also a part of this campaign.
Both the Ambanis and Goenka were criticized and admired. People criticized Goenka for using a national newspaper to sort personal enmity. Critics believed that there were many other businessman in the country who were using more unfair and unethical pratices but Goenka choose to target only Ambani and not others. When Ramnath Goenka was asked as to why he choose to fight against Dhirubhai only, he is believed to have said "Everybody rapes the system but this man wanted to make it his mistress". Critics also admired Goenka for his ability to run these articles without the help from his regular staff. Dhirubhai Ambani was getting more recognition and admiration. A section of the public started to appreciate Dhirubhai's business sense and his ability to tame the system as per his wishes. [2]
The end to the tussle came only after Dhirubhai Ambani met with a stroke. While Dhirubhai Ambani was recovering in San Diego, his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani managed the affairs. The Indian Express had turned the guns against Reliance and was directly blaming the government for not doing enough to penalise Reliance Industries. The battle between Wadia - Goenka and Ambanis took a new direction and became a national crisis. Gurumurthy and another journalist Mulgaokar consorted with President Giani Zail Singh and ghost-wrote a hostile letter to the Prime Minister on his behalf. The Indian Express published draft of the President’s letter as a scoop, not realising that Zail Singh had made changes to the letter before sending it to Rajiv Gandhi. Ambani's had won the battle at this point. Now the tussle was directly between the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Ramnath Goenka. Ambani's made a quiet exit at this point. The government then raided the Express guest house in Delhi’s Sunder Nagar and found the original draft with corrections in Mulgaokar’s handwriting. By 1988-89, Rajiv’s government retaliated with a series of unnecessary prosecutions. Even then, Goenka retained his iconic stature, because, to many people, he seemed to be replaying his heroic defiance of the Emergency regime.
[edit] Jan Sangh and BJP
Many people believe that Ramnath Goenka supporting the sister organizations of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Goenka’s best friends were Nanaji Deshmukh and the Rajmata of Gwalior,Vijayaraje Scindia both known supporters of RSS. His chief advisor was S. Gurumurthy, who is proud of his RSS links. His doctor and advisor was J. K. Jain (of Jain TV fame) who is a known Swaymsevak or Volunteer of RSS. His most famous editor was Arun Shourie, who later became a BJP minister. His lawyer was Arun Jaitley, who served V. P. Singh’s government in a legal capacity but found fame as a BJP minister.
[edit] Later years and Death
Ramnath Goenka continued his fight till his last days. After a prolonged illness, on October 5, 1991 Ramnath Goenka breathed his last in Mumbai.
[edit] Biography
Warrior of the Fourth Estate, is the official biography of Ramnath Goenka and is authored by BG Verghese. It has been published by Penguin, India. ISBN:0-67-005842-4
[edit] Media
He was portrayed as the ageing press baron, Manikdas Gupta, by Hindi film actor, Mithun Chakraborty in the 2007 Hindi movie, Guru (2007 film).
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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