60 Lakhs Sponsor - Silent M.A Pharis

Deccan Herald » National » Detailed Story Now, football spurs CPM group war DH News Service, Thiruvananthapuram: A football tournament organised by the CPM in Kannur has spurred a fresh round of factional war between Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the strife-torn party in Kerala.Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said here on Saturday that he would enquire into the questionable manner in which his party had received Rs 60 lakh from a “tainted” person for the tournament. In perhaps the first such exercise by a political party, the Nayanar Memorial International Gold Cup Football tournament was organised by the CPM in April last. A committee chaired by Mr Vijayan had overseen the conduct of the tournament which was attended by several teams including one from Pakistan. Last week, a Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi raised questions about the “secretive” manner in which Rs 60 lakh was received by the tournament committee from Chennai-based Parrot Grove Pvt Ltd. The company which donated the money chose to remain “invisible” at the tournament as its name was nowhere seen nor was it listed as a sponsor, it alleged. ‘Nothing shady’The CPM later clarified that there was nothing shady about the sponsorship of the tournament though it neither acknowledged nor denied the receipt of the money. Mr M A Pharis who owns the company is also the present chairman of Malayalam daily Deepika owned by the Catholic Church. He is known to be close to the Vijayan camp as justified by the spate of anti-Achuthanandan and pro-Vijayan stories appearing in Deepika for quite sometime now. Mr Pharis later issued a statement stating that a section of a section the media was out to tarnish him by publishing baseless charges. It was in this context that Mr Achuthanandan made the controversial statements linking him and the Vijayan camp. “Our party has well-established norms of soliciting funds. If we had received the funds from tainted people, then it will be probed,’’ Mr Achuthanandan said at a meet-the-press programme here.