Deepika (newspaper) - Ownership Troubles (2004-2007)

Ownership Troubles (2004-2007)

Pharis Aboobacker|M. A. Pharis, a real estate entrepreneur, came into the financially ailing Rashtra Deepika Private Limited in 2004 with a loan of Rs. 2 crore following its decision to sell shares through private placement. The loan was welcomed as a relief to the company which was going through a resource crunch. The then Deepika chairman, Bishop Mathew Arakkal, had sent out a note to the share-holders dated July 20, 2006 in which he made the following statement: "I made sincere attempts to mobilize funds from within the community, but the responses were very disappointing. In these circumstances, I contacted Mr. M A Pharis, a Muslim NRI entrepreneur of considerable resources. He agreed to advance a small interest free loan of Rs. 2 crore to RDL for two years. He said if we were unable to repay the loan, it would be considered as zakat." Pharis was allowed a seat on the board of directors and later was made a vice chairman of the company. In stages, he had advanced around 10 crore to the company and was practically calling the shots in its editorial policy.

It was then the Church leadership came to its senses and found that their traditional newspaper was now taking up a totally different role and was acting more like the voice of a group in the CPI(M). In the group war between senior Kerala CPM leaders Pinarayi Vijayan and VS Achuthanandan, Deepika was acting as the unofficial mouthpiece for Pinarayi. It was a curious turn of events for the newspaper which led the Liberation Struggle in 1958 against the Communists. Church was also concerned about the track record of Pharis who had emerged as the real power centre within the paper. He had lot of opposition from various church groups also.He was able to manage Deepika single Handedly without even stepping into its office.Worried, the Church decided to raise money to repay Pharis. At one point there was an agreement between the Church and Pharis that the Church would retain its properties at the headquarters at Kottayam while all other offices and other properties of Deepika elsewhere would go to Pharis as part of the settlement. According to conservative estimates, the assets the Church was willing to part with were worth more than Rs.20 crore, that is more than double his actual investment. It showed how desperate the Church was to salvage its public image. The church was later pressurised to put advertisement in Malayala Manorama newspaper claiming that Pharis is innocent and that Pharis will handover the newspaper whenever the Church wanted which he did. Sathyadeepam, the official weekly publication of the Ernakulam arch diocese of the Syro Malabar Church, wrote a strong article condemning the affairs at Deepika and its loss to the Church because of mismanagement. Many other catholic periodicals also raised their voice for the restoration of Deepika to the church. As on 28 January 2008, the ownership was relieved from Pharis after a long series of hefty negotiations between the church and Pharis.