Gurugram: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s confidant and chief principal secretary Rajesh Khullar has emerged as the most powerful officer in the chief minister’s office (CMO) with 17 departments under him following the reallocation of departments Wednesday.
Similarly, Khattar’s principal secretary V. Umashankar got 10 departments, Additional Principal Secretary Ashima Brar 11, and Additional Principal Secretary Amit Agarwal 9. Among officers on special duty (OSDs) in Khattar’s CMO, Sudhanshu Gautam will look after 6 departments, Bhupeshwar Dayal 2, and Devender Singh 3.
Among the departments assigned to Khullar are all matters related to legislative business, legislative matters to be placed before the Council of Ministers and ordinances, architecture, administration of justice, citizens resources information, excise and taxation, energy, foreign cooperation, general administration, home and criminal administration, industries and commerce, information and public relations, jails, public health engineering, public works, rehabilitation, revenue and disaster management, town and country planning and urban estates.
Khullar will also be the overall in-charge of the CMO, and will also look after the departments not assigned to anyone else.
This is not the first time that Khullar, a 1988 batch IAS officer who retired from the civil services on August 31, 2023, has established himself as the most trusted officer of Khattar.
In December last year, Khattar appointed Khullar’s wife Sonia Trikha Khullar as member of the Haryana Public Service Commission, a day after she sought voluntary retirement as Director General of Health Services, Haryana.
Khullar, who was principal secretary in the CMO from 2015 to 2019, left for the US after he was appointed the executive director in the World Bank in September 2020. He returned in February 2023 and was posted as Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue).
A day after his retirement, he was appointed chief principal secretary to Khattar on September 1, 2023, replacing D.S. Dhesi, a retired chief secretary, who was made principal advisor (urban development). He was also a part of the CMO of O. P. Chautala during his term from 2000 to 2005.
Born on 31 August, 1963, at Ambala Cantonment, Khullar graduated from Kurukshetra University and did M. Sc in Physics with a gold medal from Panjab University. While he was pursuing his M. Tech from IIT-Delhi, Khullar made it to the Indian Police Services (IPS) in 1987 and was allocated Maharashtra cadre. However, during his training at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad, he made it to the IAS in 1988 and was given the Haryana cadre.
Khullar holds a degree of Master of Public Administration from the National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo, Japan and a Diploma in Executive Development Programme from Harvard Kennedy School.
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‘Popular with bosses, subordinates’
A retired IAS officer described Khullar as one of the few bureaucrats who connect with the grassroots and as someone who is known for his kindness and genuineness among the government officials.
“He comes from a humble background and has reached the echelons of powers with his sheer hard work and commitment. The headiness of bureaucracy has not touched him. He knows the sufferings and hardships of common people. Perhaps, this is the reason he is popular with his bosses as well as with the subordinates,” the retired officer told ThePrint.
Khullar is respectful to the people who come to meet him, gives space to his subordinates at work, and provides exemplary leadership with innovative ideas and ability to solve problems, the retired bureaucrat said.
Khullar is known for coming out with the most innovative out-of-the-box ideas, he added. “This makes him almost indispensable for people in power. His ideas are behind many of the schemes launched by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.”
In a survey conducted by the PSU Watch in 2019, Khullar featured among the top 50 bureaucrats of the country. While some of Khullar’s critics see him being Punjabi as the reason behind his closeness to Khattar, they, too, acknowledge his abilities as a bureaucrat.
Retired IPS officer and Panchkula-based advocate Rajbir Deswal describes Khullar as a “perfectionist” as an officer and humble as a person.
“He had targeted cracking the IAS, not just for bread and butter, but also to prove his mettle and serve the people to the best of his ability. He is a man with fine tastes — be it writing or singing — and takes up challenges and solves problems at the same time, winning accolades not only from the general public but also from his peers, colleagues, and seniors,” Deswal said.
“He fully deserves the sobriquet of a perfectionist. Both of us took over as DC and SP of Sonipat together. Generally, it is the SP who calls on the Deputy Commissioner to join, but he walked into my office to have tea,” the former IPS officer recalled.
“He has a unique ability to foresee the upcoming events and situations and share it by way of suggestions to the people he worked for, or assisted, making them believe in him.”
Deswal asserted that Khullar has a knack for inventing schemes and programmes which are taken up whole-heartedly by the general public.
“‘Whenever introspecting, I think about myself, I go on the rooftop and look at the stars and the entire cosmos. And then I realise that my existence or entity is not more than a ‘Zarra’ (the smallest particle)’ — this is what Khullar told me when I asked him the reason for his getting along with everyone around,” he said.
(This report has been updated with correction in dates)
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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