Bücher veröffentlicht von Har-Anand Publications Pvt Ltd

A Chronology of Men, Matters and Events chronicles seven decades of history, banking and economics, both in India and overseas from the perspective of the author, who is also, incidentally, a poet. The book records the author's recollections from his life as a young child and as a student at the DAV College, Lahore in undivided India. He narrates his impressions of Mahatma Gandhi, the Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Lala Yodhraj, and the Dalmia Jain Group. The book further analyzes India's leaders post-independence and other eminent personalities in independent India. The author's association with the Central Bank of India until his unceremonious termination by Indira Gandhi, coinciding with the imposition of the infamous Emergency in 1975, form an important part of this book. The book also highlights the author's advisory role in TCS, his experiences as an international banker in Dubai, and his experiences in London where he was deputed to unearth and investigate a major fraud at the Central Bank of India, which provide an interesting glimpse into a major international banking fraud at the relevant time.

Part biography, part memoire, part travelogue, part a portrayal of people and rulers of various countries and part commentary on international developments and actions and decisions of the MEA, this book is an account of the roller coaster journey of trials and tribulations, high and lows, moments of sheer exhilaration and deep desperation of a diplomatic nomad expressed in simple language without any diplomatic dilemmas. It is a starkly realistic view of ground realities emerging from first-hand experiences in some of the world's most challenging places. It is a candid, bold and honest account put across in a manner which is surprisingly undiplomatic and politically incorrect! To a great extent, the reader becomes a partner of the author and travels along with him, sharing his joys and sorrows, anger and frustration and offering slices of a heady mix of different cultures, customs, colours, hues, traditions, mindsets, ways of living and systems of governance. It demystifies and deconstructs the life of an Indian diplomat. It is not all wining and dining and dancing till wee hours or teeing off early morning. It is also a constant struggle to survive against all odds and keep the Indian flag flying, swaying things around in India's favour and generating goodwill and friendship for India with whatever tools available. Not an easy task by any standards!

Institutional governance is the bedrock of Indian policy making and enforcement under our fundamental constitutional tenet of 'we the people'. Such governance relies on harmonious administrative protocols with amicable adherence amongst all the stake-holders. The 2G issue, as it was investigated, audited, charged and adjudicated by the various statutory and constitutional bodies (CVC, CAG, CBI and the Supreme Court) flouted these precepts of harmony and amicableness. The aberrant process resulted in the violation not only of democratic values but also the rights and reputations of various individuals thus tarnishing our country's image on the international stage. It was an attempt to allege guilt of 'corruption' as defined by Transparency International (TI) i.e. "Manipulation of policies in the allocation of resources." Yet, A. Raja had established that their findings and observations were diametrically opposite to the decisions of the Cabinet, Parliament, Planning Commission and Telecom Regulator (TRAI). The purpose of this book is to caution the masses that personal motivations, institutional incompetency, misunderstanding or misguidance should not hurriedly endorsed without diligent inspection. Government bodies are accountable to - and empowered by the people - and in the end "all power is trust." The author demonstrates here that the '2G scam' is a shameful blemish on the sanctity of the administrative system of our country.

From the head load, animal cart and boat to ships, railways, highways, aircraft and space ships, the history of transport would perhaps read like the story of the development of human civilization. Exploration of the world, understanding geography, analysis of conquests and invasions, colonization and control, all tell us of the crucial role so often played by movement and transportation factors. Like every branch of activity, transport has had its own words evolved through usage and acquired by one language from the others. The first commercial means of transport was shipping and the words used there were often adopted later by other modes like railways, mechanized road transport and airways. Even otherwise, words have moved from one mode of transport to the others and this coupled with a rapid growth of technology and management practices, this group of words has enlarged enough to warrant a dictionary of its own. This book is about transportation terms and, at places, also about the concepts behind them.

On 3 December, 1971 India had sent her forces inside East Pakistan, part of a neighbouring state, to save the citizens (Bengali Muslims) from one of the most dreadful genocides, that was being perpetrated upon them by their own so-called ruling class from West Pakistan. This was one of the very few unique battles fought in the annals of the human history where a neighbouring country had ever sent its troops not to capture the country and subdue the people but to save them from their demoniac leaders. What can be more sublime employment of the Army? This book, in quest of the genesis of this war, has dug into the history of the subcontinent and narrated development of the events. The warring countries were once parts of the same country before the cruel hands of politics dissected it into two. The narration included advent of British Rule followed by political development which caused the partition, horror of partition, freedom struggle in Bangladesh, part of author's formative life leading to join army, events culminating into war and the war itself. Lastly each and every Indian showed undivided support to the government in taking proper action including employment of arms to free the poor East Bengalese from untold miseries.

The book deals in particular, with Indian politicians equally unsparingly exposing their role in the whole episode, irrespective of the positions they were occupying. He has been highly critical of the role of the then President Giani Zail Singh and the Kashmiri lobby around Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and how these groups had evil influence over both of them, and how ultimately Rajiv Gandhi got rid of this lobby. This should be a lesson for the senior politicians that they should not blindly trust those surrounding them and they should keep an eye on their surroundings also, so that those around them do not exploit their position and also are not able to mislead the leader. But politicians in position do not give thought to such matters as a result they themselves become victims of their own surroundings, as it happened with Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. During Giani Zail Singh's tenure as President of India, Rashtrapati Bhawan had become the biggest centre of intrigues and conspiracies and even the Supreme Court had to express concern over the security aspects and falling standards in Rashtrapati Bhawan. The book highlights all these concerns with an open mind.

It is a tough job being a Pakistani in 2015. The country is known globally for all the wrong reasons. From terrorism, religious extremism to political instability, Pakistan has been called the most dangerous country in the world. In this supposedly most dangerous country exist people who have aspirations and hopes that are not that dissimilar to the rest of the world. More importantly most of us do not conflate our identity with being anti-Indian. India is Pakistan's near abroad and the home of Bollywood which most Pakistanis are hooked on to. Through the book, the author attempts to forge meaning of the events around us. No reasonable person can deny that there is a lot with Pakistan today. Unlike India, Pakistan constitutionally discriminates against its minorities. This the author argues is at variance to the vision that Mohammad Ali Jinnah had for Pakistan. Jinnah's vision of Pakistan was an inclusive and democratic state; a Muslim majority version of India. Pakistan has strayed far from that original pluralistic vision. In the case of Ahmadis, who ironically had been the most enthusiastic supporters of the Pakistan idea, the constitutional discrimination has taken an ugly turn. Their very rights as citizens have brought under a question mark. This is the result of appeasement by Pakistan's ruling elites, who have allowed extremist groups, militant and otherwise, grab hold of the narrative and define Pakistan and indeed Pakistani at narrowly.

This book is about an incident in Court No. 1 of Supreme Court of India on 21 July 2000, the like of which has not smudged ever the copy-book of any Court in the Commonwealth or the United States. The attending lawyers and journalists were shocked to hear the Chief Justice deliver himself of two one-liners packed with malicious venom. Is there a civilized Government? Do they know something called joint Cabinet responsibility? If these had become the judgement of the Court, the Government may well have resigned. But the then Chief Justice was really venting his spleen on the Law Minister who was reported by newspapers to have warned the Maharashtra Government against arresting Bala Saheb Thakre for a time barred offence of seven years ago. The then Prime Minister, wearing a troublesome crown of thorns, was told that the heavens have fallen. The executive and judiciary are on a collision course, Government will come to grief and it, law officers will face the music. Disaster can only be averted by neutralizing the Law Minister. The book unfolds the untold story of three persons who bamboozled an unsuspecting Prime Minister, on to a impolitic course.