New Delhi: Former editor of the Nagpur Marathi daily the ‘Yugdharma‘ and eminent expert on journalist wage matters, Manohar P. Andhare, died on Friday after brief illness in Secunderabad (Telengana). He was 87.
He is survived by his son Ajit, news editor in the English daily Deccan Chronicle and a daughter, Prof. Archana Gadekar, an advocate in Vadodara and lecturer in law faculty of the M.S. University.
Andhare worked for many Marathi journals, including the Khabar, Deshonnati and Dainik Bhaskar.
He was a founder of the Lohia Adhiyayan Kendra. A commerce graduate, he did M.A. in economics. He was a professor of media studies at the Nagpur School of Journalism.
He was nominated by the Union Government the on journalist pension committee and also a member of the Maharastra State Press Accreditation Committee, Mumbai.
“Comrade” Andhare, as he was popularly known, was the national convener of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ) committee on Justice U.N. Bhachawat wages board.
His contribution to higher wage-scales through this wage board was immense. He ably assisted late S.V. Jayasheel Rao of Bangalore, who was the IFWJ nominee on the Bhachawat wage board and earlier IFWJ secretary general. Andhare had got the employees of the All India (law) Reports (AIR) the legal recognition as working journalists.
Andhare was instrumental in the expansion of the IFWJ state units in the Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Andhare was elected the secretary-general of the National Confederation of Newspaper and News agencies. Employees organizations at its Nagpur session.Com. S.Y. Kolhatkar of the CPM-led C.I.T.U., was its president. The Confederation was founded at Chitrakoot on 2 October 1978.
Andhare led a 35-member IFWJ delegation to 16 countries of Europe, including Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
An activist during the Emergency (1975-77), Andhare was in the vanguard of struggle against press censorship. He led many media movements in the Vidarbha region. He was in the forefront of the Jayaprakash Narayan movement.
Andhare was elected IFWJ secretary at the 21st planum in Ayodhya on 25 June 1984, alongwith Ramdutt Tripathi, Chittranjan Alva and A. Prabhakar Rao.
At the 22nd plenary session of the IFWJ at Lucknow Cantonement’s Surya auditorium on 4-8 July 1988, IFWJ president K. Vikram Rao had nominated Andhare as the 15th secretary-general. He had succeded K. Mathew Roy of Ernakulam (Kerala).
Among Andhare’s friends and admirers are Sharad Pawar, (NCP), Devendra Fadanvis and Nitin Gadkari (BJP) .
In his condolence message, Gadkari said he was saddened by the death of the senior journalist.
The IFWJ deeply mourns sad demise of its former secretary-general and veteran Marathi editor.
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