Making sense of Ayodhya Verdict:Towards efforts for peaceful solution

Making Sense of Ayodhya Verdict Towards Efforts for Peaceful Solution Editors Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer Prof. Ram Puniyani ayodhya.jpgIn the aftermath of the Ayodhya judgement by the Allahabad High Court, many social commentators, activists, historians, leaders or groups and parties came out with their opinion in various ways. Making Sense of the Ayodhya Issue captures the background of archaeological, historical and political aspects of the issue and lays the foundation of understanding the current debates. Tracing the evolution f the dispute and its political implications, the book goes o n to present the intellectual atmosphere in the country post-judgement and gives a perspective about different facets of the consequences of the verdict. It gives the sample of the verdict by giving the major excerpts of the judgement, the opinions of all the three judges and the editorial opinions from different points of view. It includes the interview of one of the judges, major intellectuals, writers and social activists. It also incorporates the chronology of events related to the dispute. Contents Preface Introduction Section – I (Babri Masjid) 1. Mandir-Masjid Dispute: A Backgrounder Ram Puniyani 2. The Historical Context Haider Abbas Section-II (Legal Dispute) 3. History and nature of Legal Dispute 4. The Judgment Section-III (Media speak) 5. Editorials 6. Interviews · Justice Khan: Another Fall and We May Not Rise Again · Rajinder Sachar: Faith Has No Meaning in Court · Asghar Ali Engineer: Faith Not Law Ruled · Anupam Gupta: Far Removed from Secular Universe · Prakash Karat: A Dangerous Precedent · Zafaryab Jilani: Against Settled Principles · Rajiv Dhavan: Seriously Flawed · Ravi Shankar Prasad: Muslim Should Take the Hint · Giriraj Kishore and Praveen Togadia: We Can Offer Muslim Land Anywhere Else 7. Articles · Dileep Padgaonkar: The muddle path · T R Andhiyarujina: A verdict that legitimises the masjid demolition · Rajendra sachar: All parties must act to face the situation · Asghar Ali Engineer: Triumph of faith or constitutional legality · Mukul Kesavan: The dispute over mosque is an argument about India · Ronojoy Sen: Till the judgement day comes again · Barkha Dutt: No triumphalism · Verghese George: A matter of faith · Hindu: Young Muslim and reflecting on Ayodhya · Vinod Mehta: My own sort of a Hindu · T.K. Rajlakshmi: Forgetting facts · Sunil Khilnani: The Sensex can’t heal the Ayodhya wounds · Sidharth Vardarajan: Force of faith trumps law and reason in Ayodhya case · Praful Bidwai: Justice in Ayodhya · Sitaram Yechury: Not about blind faith · Dileep Padgaonkar: See clergy take off communal blinkers · J Sri Raman: Ayodhya cerdict: Advani’s windfall · A.G. Noorani: Muslim wronged · Prabhat Patnaik: Any retreat to premodernity is dangerous to democracy · Deepankar Bhattacharya: A blow to spirit of modern India · Ram Puniyani: Commit the crime and be rewarded · Shekhar Gupta-The India verdict · Harsh Mander: A battle for the idea of India · Rajni Bakshi: Secular rethink · Mahesh Rangarajan: The judgment tests the idea of India · Khushwant Singh: Let’s no longer bicker over temple or mosque · Sanjay Kaw: The secret witness · Rohini Hensman: Politics, history, religion and law: The Ayodhya verdict · Shahjahan Madampat: A travesty of justice · Sagarika Ghosh: Seize the moment · Anand Teltumde: Retrograde judgement rewards Hindu zealots · Manoj Mitta: The Ayodhya verdict · Jawed Naqwi: The story of lion, the fawn and legend of Ram · K Vidyasagar Reddy: Verdict on Ayodhya and after: Calm before the storm · Subramaniam Swamy: Fundamental issue in Ayodhya · Swapan Dasgupta: Ayodhya is religious not political now · Maulana Wahiduddin Khan: Babri masjid revisited · Ranu Jain: Ayodhya verdict: Implications for Indian Democracy · Yoginder Sikand: Musings of a hardcore agnostic · Rajesh Ramchandran: Verdict is a victory for Sangh Parivar · Sucheta Chaterjee: The mask is off · Avinash Pandey Samar: Ayodhya: Burial of justice · S.G. Vombatkere: Faith, fact and law in Ayodhya Appendix– A Statements of Ayodhya Verdict Appendix- B Chronology of Events Appendix – C Explanatory Notes-References Published by Vitasta Publishing Pvt. Ltd. 2/15, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi: - 110 002. info@vitastapublishing.com Total pages: 246 ISBN 978-93-80828-50-3 Price Indian Rupee symbol.svg 425/- Marketed and Distributed exclusively in India & Sub-Continent by: Times Groups Books (A division of Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited) Times Annexe, Express Building, 9-10 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi:- 110 002.

Few Things left unsaid , book release function july13th 2011 at PVR juhu

Book release photos

Urban issues and Environmental Challenges

Urban Issues And Environment Challenges takes a hard look at a wide spectrum of urban and environment issues, both general and specific. Under the gamut of urban issues it examines the Fallout of Urbanization, Problems of Municipal Governance, Human Resource Development, Legislation, Resource Mobilization, Urban Services, Urban Poor and Citizen Participation. In the section on environment it analyses the issues of Global Warming, Climate Change and the Copenhagen Accord, Disaster Management and Non Conventional Energy.

Some of the contents of the book were published as articles in national journals, as papers presented at national and international seminars and conferences, or as part of project assignments undertaken in India and abroad by the authors individually. Although written over the span of last few years, they have urgent relevance even today, since they depict the growing management and environmental problems confronting the cities and the institutions governing them.

Globalisation, ICT and Developing Nations Sub-Title: Challenges in the Information Age Author: Sumit Roy, Bok Review Johnson Thomas

Book Title: Globalisation, ICT and Developing Nations
Sub-Title: Challenges in the Information Age
Author: Sumit Roy.
Publisher: New Delhi, Sage Pub.,
Year of publication:2005, No of Pages:247 p., tables,Price: $30/Rs.340.
ISBN 81-7829-487-7.
‘Globalisation, ICT and Developing Nations: Challenges in the Information Age’ authored by Sumit Roy, a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Department of economics, City university London, is focused on the critical relationship between globalisation and Information and communications technology(ICT). It is not an exhaustive study of globalisation but aims to complement existing texts. The analytical framework is based on a comparitive political economy approach and offers conceptual and policy insights into the core themes interlocking globalisation.
The force driving globalisation in the 21st century is undoubtedly Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Enabling instant communication over vast distances and in real time, ICT has far-reaching implications for transnational relationships. However, the core relationship between globalisation and ICT, a major area of inquiry, has hitherto been somewhat neglected and inadequately studied.
Focusing on this important relationship, this book emphasises that increasingly non-state institutions, as opposed to the state, are transforming economies. The author also highlights the critical need for developing regions to shape ICT which can stimulate development and usher in the information age. This book emphasises that increasingly non-state institutions, as opposed to the state, are transforming economies. The author also highlights the critical need for developing regions to shape ICT which can stimulate development and usher in the information age. Globalisations historic process encapsulates a vision of shared universal values, goals and measures to advance society. The contemporary phase of globalisation according to Roy, has served to extend and remold relationships. Contemporary globalisation is complex and is constantly redefined as world trends keep shifting and changing. The relationship between gobalisation and structural change unfolds integration and fragmentation. Attempts to create a homogenous world are matched by social forces opposing such moves.
Sumit Roy provides a comparative study of the political economies of East and South Asia (particularly India) and Africa which enables new analytical and policy insights into the linkages between globalisation and ICT.
With its original approach and fresh analytical and policy insights, this cogent and well argued book will be of interest to students and teachers of globalisation, economics, new media, development studies, politics and international relations. Policy makers, too--especially those in international aid agencies--NGOs and multilateral bodies will find it invaluable.

Johnson Thomas
johnsont307@gmail.com



Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Globalisation, international political economy and structural change. 3. Globalisation, information and communications technology and development. References. Index.
"The force driving globalisation in the 21st century is undoubtedly Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Enabling instant communication over vast distances and in real time, ICT has far-reaching implications for transnational relationships. However, the core relationship between globalisation and ICT, a major area of inquiry, has hitherto been somewhat neglected and inadequately studied.
Focusing on this important relationship, this book emphasises that increasingly non-state institutions, as opposed to the state, are transforming economies. The author also highlights the critical need for developing regions to shape ICT which can stimulate development and usher in the information age.
Sumit Roy provides a comparative study of the political economies of East and South Asia (particularly India) and Africa which enables new analytical and policy insights into the linkages between globalisation and ICT. Among the key features of this book are:
· It discusses the concepts and policies underscoring the shift from state to non-state institutions in furthering the impetus of globalisation as also its implications for development. This is set against a backdrop of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial and eventually an information-based society.
· It explores the scope of different developing regions to participate in globalisation based on a comparison of their experience of growth and development--namely, the different phases of integration, disintegration, marginalisation, and reintegration into the international economy.
· It explores the ways in which policies on ICT can be both a challenge and a unique opportunity for paving the way for development.
With its original approach and fresh analytical and policy insights, this cogent and well argued book will be of interest to students and teachers of globalisation, economics, new media, development studies, politics and international relations. Policy makers, too--especially those in international aid agencies--NGOs and multilateral bodies will find it invaluable."

Customer Value Investment, Gautam Mahajan, Book Review by Johnson Thomas

Book Title: Customer Value Investment
Sub-Title: Formula for sustained business successes
Author: Gautam Mahajan
Response, Business Books from Sage publications
www.sagepublications.com
Paperback edition, 187 pages , Price:Rs.295/-
ISBN 978-0-7619-3604-6

Gautam Mahajan, the internationally acclaimed expert in Business Strategy, Management and globalisation, resident of Interlink services Pvt.Ltd(an international consulting firm) and former President of the Indo-American chamber of Commerce has authored this book in the interests of Customer Value Management(CVM). In his own words , “Ever since I discovered that satisfaction did not lead to loyalty, which led to the concept of Customer Value Management, I have been interested in promoting CVM, it’s art and it’s science. It has been proven that creating a competitive advantage through customer value leads to increased market share, profitability and shareholder value,” he says. Gautam is CVM Inc.’s associate in India. He is also one of the finest consultants in the field. He has great ideas and practical advice and it’s all there in this book of his. He definitely delivers what he promises.
The customer is the ultimate driver of business. Customers buy products and services which in turn give them added vale , which in-turn lends a winning edge to one company over the other. The customer-in-center concept is the USP that Gautam uses to rng added profitability to companies big and small. Gautam’s book tells us why CVM is important and it’s main focus is on it’s implementation. Through this book he shows us how a company transforms itself into a customer-centric organization and what are the benefits that accrue thereafter. Gautam Mahajan makea a strong case for CV Investment by companies. He shows us how this special outlay can bring in sustained business success, generating a huge return on investment(ROI) and improving the value of the company for it’s stakeholders. In this book he literally shows us step-by-step, how the customer juggernaut gets right behind the company to spell it’s long-term success. Gautam uses examples to show the different ways in which a company can invest in the customer. The book explains how companies can move beyond customer management and satisfaction to loyalty, become market leaders and improve business results, understand the value they provide to customers, improve service quality and loyalty, set up customer Circles and build customer conduits, understand competitive strategies and pre-empt competition and measure customer capital. He also answers many other business questions while extolling the virtues of CVI. He also explains how superior customer value ensures loyalty and creates an emotional bond with the brand, thus leading to increased market share and profitability. This is a classic must-read for all business executives. It works as a powerful and practical guide to make businesses of any size successful by truly lacing customers at the center of it’s business strategy. This book is extremely user friendly and easily readable. But will the powers that be in Organizations both big and small stoop to reading this book? Only time and the depletion of the long waiting list at the consumer courts will tell the truth on this one.

Johnson Thomas

Business to Business Marketing,Book Review by Johnson Thomas

Title: Business to Business Marketing
Authors: Ross Brenan, Louise Canning, Raymond MacDowell.
ISBN: 978-1-4129-1970-8
Sage Publications www.sagepub.co.uk
Paperback Edition, 359 pages, Price:


The expression business to business marketing is synonymous with ‘business marketing’. It is therefore important not to suppose that business to business marketing is synonymous with marketing goods and services to the manufacturing industries. Over the period 1978-2003 there has been a prominent trend away from manufacturing employment and towards service sector employment. So this book certainly seems opportune at a time when B2B employment seems to have to become the most return-heavy form of employment for the young and fresh out of college wannabes.
Modern economies are becoming increasingly service orientated. In fact the service industries account for close to 75% employment in such countries as Australia, Canada, UK and USA in 2000 and the trend is towards even higher levels of service sector employment.
This book under review acknowledges that Business to business marketing involves both the processes of marketing mix management and of relationship/network management. The chapters inside have interesting case studies and theory that provide some essential background definitions, addresses the question of buying and selling processes in organizational markets, useful information about organizational buyers and buying teams, examining the interaction between buyers and sellers in a business relationship, discuss the importance of customer value and look at the ways in which marketers seek to organize te strategic effort to enhance the value that they deliver to customers, importance of marketing ethics, key analytical processes in business to business marketing, business to business marketing management, integrated marketing communications in B2B marketing management, marketing communications methods deployed at the level of the inter-firm relationship, communications within inter-firm relationships, how to manage a firm’s portfolio of customer relationships and management of routes in markets.
'Business-to-Business Marketing’ will help students examine views that argue for or against B2B marketing being simply a variant of consumer marketing or only concerned with inter-organizational relationship management. Written from an European perspective and recognizing that organizational markets can be very different, the ideas and examples used in this book are as claimed by the authors, based on the latest research and scholarship and hence of great import to all connected with or belonging to the B2B industry.

Johnson Thomas.

Ghosts,Occult and Exorcists, Parur Ganesan

Just released !



GHOSTS, OCCULTS & EXORCISTS

Parur S.Ganesan’s latest !!
This book contains 10 real ghost experiences of the author

(5 relating to North Parur (Kerala) & 5 of Mumbai)

plus

very interesting experiences with Miracle men
Price Rs.170/-

(by cheque/Demand draft/Money order in favour of S.Ganesan payable at Mumbai)



( free courier delivery anywhere within India)



Contact:

S.Ganesan 28/103,”Vidya” Pestom Sagar, Chembur,Mumbai-400089 (Phone 25222525)






The Mysterious Life After Death
Schism between the metaphysical and the physical

Parur S.Ganesan
Ghosts and God have many things in common-their existence has always been under challenge. They exist only for the believers. Non-believers known as atheists, rationalists, or agnostics strongly contest the very concept. No one has won this eternally favorite slugfest. Those who believe in God have legions to narrate of their experiences. Similarly, many believe in ghosts and have stories to narrate of their personal experiences. In both, the belief is born out of personal experience. A recent survey by a leading newspaper in Mumbai reported that 55% of those whom they interviewed believed in ghosts, while as many as 25% have either seen ghosts or have had ghost experiences. Strangely, the two schools of thought have been maintaining their beliefs and disbeliefs from time immemorial all over the world perpetuating the confusion of the metaphysical and the physical,

The ancient Greeks, Romans, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists- all believe in extra terrestrial influences. Many feel that there are certainly some things beyond our realm. In Japan and China, as in India the belief is manifested through worship of spirits of the departed. For the Chinese, an ancestor is not just some one to honour, but also some one whose needs must be met and maintained. The living is obligated to tend to the wants of the dead by continuous offerings or risk consequences. Ancestor worship is also prevalent in Australia and Pacific Islands. To the Africans, ghosts are a part of their social living and thinking.. The Shamans of Mexico also are great believers of ghosts and spirits.

Plato did believe that there existed something within the huge vacuum between the world and the immortal world. Ancient Tibetan literature, the Old Testament and Hindu mythology contain several references to ghosts and spirits. Ghosts, Gobblins, Gnomes, Ghouls, Apparitions, Vampires, Witches, Imps, Werewolves and other wild spirits are several manifestations of this mysterious life after death. In the medieval period Shakespeare in England, Dante in Italy and the intelligentsia in general were influenced by the concept of spirits and ghosts. The Western mystical circles do talk of an "astral plane" as also of heaven, hell and purgatory. While heaven is a state of bliss and hell is payback for sins, purgatory is a correction center en route to heaven. Hindus do believe in karma and life after death situations.

Scientists believe that without physical proof, all notions of God, ghosts, angels, the (Holy) spirit and even soul itself and consequently life after death are worthy only to be discarded. Science does not accept out-of-sensory objects. To the rationalists, hell and heaven are poetic imagination and so are reincarnations and transmigration of souls. They hold that belief in ghosts and for that matter even God is childhood impressions inerasably stamped in a virgin and all absorbing mind carried forward for generations by the community. According to them ghost experiences should be dismissed as freaks or a hold-over created by mind arising out of paranoid or paranormal experiences. Thus there is a schism between science and metaphysics.

The believers contest that ghosts are real and about physical. They embody in shadowy forms of people who cannot find a way to leave the world, out of attachment or unfulfilled desires.. .Real ghost experiences have been recorded and confirmed by many occupying exalted and high positions in society including celebrities. Scientists may dismiss these experiences coming out of an esoteric frame of mind, often conditioned by the environment they live in ; they externalize these beliefs by giving them a form and shape. Thus the conflict zone between the skeptics and the believers has not been bridged.

While on this topic, the thought provoking and analytical findings of Padma Vibhushan Shri.V.R.Krishna Iyer, former Judge of the Supreme Court needs special reference.
Justice Shri.Krishna Iyer who was propelled to study this subject since 1973 after his wife's unexpected demise has conducted, in his typical trait, extensive and intensive search and research on the vexed question of life beyond death.. His conclusion is that death is a transition and not a termination. It is a punctuation mark and not a full stop. After discussing this subject with many eminent researchers world over with polarized views on the life after riddle, Mr. Krishna Iyer has also discovered the big answers to the ever perplexing riddles of karma, reincarnation, transmigration of souls, Extra Sensory Perceptions (ESP), Near Death Experience (NDE), with factual foundations.

In Japan many children do remember World War II with identical experiences. To the Tibetans when the Dalai lama dies his reincarnation is predetermined. Old Testament does consider reincarnation possible What explanation have rationalists to give on a Buddhia Singh at five taking to Marathon in Orissa, or to a little Srinivas of Tamil Nadu playing at ease, difficult classical tunes in mandolin at the age of four explaining to a spell bound audience the concept of each note (raga)? Recently, a four year girl living in a remote village of UP claimed that her real name was Kalpana Chawla, the astronaut who died in the skies four years ago in the US space shuttle crash. She has been narrating to her illiterate parents details of her journey in the space shuttle and how she died in the crash. To every one's surprise, she also mentions the name of Kalpana's father. San Francisco based reincarnation researcher Walter Semkiw's book "Born Again" has documented past lives of several celebrities in various fields. These include actor Shah Rukh Khan as reincarnation of the famous Bengalee dancer and actor Sadhana Bose and Amitabh Bacchan as reincarnation of Victorian actor Edwin Booth in his past life. The book further identifies President Abdul Kalam as Tipu Sultan reincarnate.

Belief in mystical science is based on experience. In the beginning few will accept it, but over a period, with repetitive experiences one gets into the belief system. We die and come back as somebody else, carrying with us certain karmik tendencies. People claiming to have total recall of previous life, are still looked at with amazement.
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.* The author was in the Indian Economic Service and later Director, Garware Polyester".GHOSTS, OCCULTS & EXORCISTS-" a book written by the author narrating his own real experiences with ghosts and sprits is being published shortly.