Captain Abhimanyu

Captain Abhimanyu (born Abhimanyu Singh Sindhu; born on 18 December 1967) is an Indian politician. He was cabinet minister with independent charge of eight departments in the Government of Haryana state in India in the first-ever government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Haryana.

He is a decorated Indian Army ex-soldier, award-winning newspaper founder editor, entrepreneur, educationist and philanthropist. Currently (19 October 2014), he is BJP's Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Legislative Assembly of Haryana from Narnaund in Hisar district.

He served in the Indian Army for six years where he was decorated with Special Services Medal. He was then selected for the Civil Services of India (ICS) but chose not to join in favour of philanthropic and social service work.

Before entering politics, Sindhu was a successful self-made entrepreneur as the founder-owner, director and chairman of several companies covering business empire across India in coal mining, power generation, transport, finance & share broking, education, media and newspaper. Among the businesses that he started is Hari Bhoomi, a Hindi-language newspaper of which he remains editor-in-chief.

As a trustee and/or chairman of various family-owned not-for-profit foundation, such as Param Mitra Manav Nirman Sansthan and Indus Group of Institutions of Sindhu Education Foundation, which owns more than dozen private colleges and schools in Haryana and Chhattisgarh, he undertakes charitable and social work e.g. scholarships, free books, free medical camps and mass weddings for poor.

Sindhu holds or has held several prominent BJP party positions including as National Spokesperson, National General Secretary, General Secretary in Haryana, in-charge of Punjab state, and co-in-charge of the state of Uttar Pradesh campaign during the Indian General Election, 2014.

In 2014, he won the election for the position of Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) as the BJP candidate from Narnaund in Haryana Vidhan Sabha constituency.

He is also involved in the promotion of archery as a sport.

Early and personal life
Abhimanyu Singh Sindhu was born on 18 December 1967 at Khanda Kheri village, Hisar district, Haryana, India. He is named after the Hindu warrior Abhimanyu (son of Arjuna) of the Mahabharata epic. His mother is Parmeshwari Devi and his father is Mitter Sen Sindhu, who was a millionaire industrialist and philanthropist.

The family has been described as a "very rich Arya Samaj family". They moved to Model Town in Rohtak where he completed his schooling and college education from Jat College.

He lives in a joint family arrangement with his three sisters and six brothers. His youngest brother, Dev Suman Singh Sindhu, is married to the daughter of the former BJP Chief Minister of Delhi, Sahib Singh Verma and sister of BJP MP from West Delhi Lok Sabha Constituency Parvesh Verma.

Education
Sindhu earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, in 1986. He obtained a LLB from the Maharishi Dayanand University in 2005 and has also completed a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication from the Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, which was awarded in 2007. He had also completed two years executive education course from Harvard Business School in 2015.

Army career
In 1987, Sindhu joined the Indian Army, passing-out as a Second Lieutenant on 5 March 1988 to serve in 7 Mechanised Infantry Regiment (1 Dogra). He was awarded the Special Services Medal (Desert) in 1989. He completed his army's 5 years Short Service Commission in 1993.

In 1994, he was selected for the Indian Civil Service but he chose not to join, preferring instead to concentrate on philanthropic and social service work.

Business career
Sindhu was involved in business prior to his political career. He is variously the founder-owner, director and chairman of several companies, including Sindhu Tradelinks Pvt Ltd and Indus Portfolio Pvt Ltd. His business ventures include coal mining, power generation, transport, share broking, finance and portfolio management, education and media.

Sindhu is editor-in-chief of the Hindi-language daily Hari Bhoomi newspaper that is distributed in Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Delhi and Odisha. In 2012, this was the 11th-largest Hindi daily newspaper in India by readership. In 2002, he received the Babu Bal Mukund Gupt Award from the Haryana Sahitya Akademi for his work in journalism.

Philanthropy, education and sport
Sindhu is actively involved with the management of Delhi Public Schools, such as Delhi Public School, Bilaspur and Delhi Public School, Durg. Prior to becoming the minister he was also a member of D.A.V. College Managing Committee which runs more than 800 schools, 75 colleges and a university across the world.

He has also helped in establishing gurukuls in various regions of Odisha, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Chhattisgarh. This has been done through his family-supported organisations Param Mitra Manav Nirman Sansthan and Indus Group of Institutions, both owned by the Sindhu Education Foundation  which were founded by his philanthropist-industrialist father late Ch. Mitter Sen Sindhu.

The organisations particularly promote girls' education and provide help to children of weaker sections by giving them scholarships, free books and uniforms. In December 2017, he organised the mass wedding of 51 poor girls at Param Mitra Kanya Vidya Niketan Senior Secondary School premises of Khanda Kheri in Hisar, which he sponsored by donating 3 years' salary he had earned in the capacity of minister in Haryana government.

Sindhu is also president of Haryana Archery Association and associate vice-president of the Archery Association of India.

Politics
In 1997, he joined the senior BJP leader L. K. Advani’s Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra and mobilised milling crowds for the cause. During Lok Sabha elections, he was the election agent and Co-ordinator of Swami Indravesh in 1998, the BJP candidate from Rohtak. He was election agent and co-ordinator for Sahib Singh Verma, former Chief Minister of Delhi; and successfully managed the entire election campaign of the biggest Lok Sabha constituency of India, Outer Delhi in 1999.

In 2004, Sindhu lost contest for the Rohtak Lok Sabha parliamentary constituency against Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the then state Indian National Congress president. In the following year, he failed to win in a by-election for the same constituency against Hooda's son, Deepender Singh Hooda, and also lost the Legislative Assembly of Haryana contest in the Narnaund constituency.

In 2005, Sindhu was appointed as the General Secretary of Haryana BJP unit for two terms before being escalated to BJP National Secretary.

In 2009, he contested and lost the election for the position of MLA in the Legislative Assembly of Haryana as the BJP candidate from Narnaund. He also lost the contest for the Rohtak Lok Sabha constituency in the same year.

In 2012, as the co–in-charge of BJP Punjab, his role remained pivotal in spearheading the victory of Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance in the Punjab Legislative Assembly elections by beating the anti-incumbency mood in the state. In 2012, he was involved in Media Management of Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha elections and the Election Management team of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha elections.

In 2013, he was appointed as BJP National Spokesperson and Co-in-charge of Uttar Pradesh by Rajnath Singh ahead of the Indian General Election, 2014.

In 2014, he won the Narnaund seat in the Legislative Assembly of Haryana by a margin of 5761 votes. He was then sworn in as Cabinet Minister with charge of 13 different ministries. In 2017, he was given also made incharge of BJP part affairs for the state of Punjab. On 26 December 2018, he was again reappointed as the BJP in-charge of the Punjab and Chandigarh.

Ministries
Sindhu was given independent charge of the following 13 Government of Haryana departments as a Cabinet Minister. He has the highest number of departments after Chief Minister.


 * Department of Economic and Statistical Analysis, Haryana a.k.a. Planning Department Official website
 * Haryana State Legal Services Authority, Haryana a.k.a. Department of Law & Legislative, Haryana Official website
 * Department of Finance, Haryana Official website
 * Department of Institutional Finance & Credit Control, Haryana Official Website
 * Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, Haryana Official website
 * Department of Excise & Taxation, Haryana Official website
 * Department of Land records & Consolidation, Haryana Haryana HALRIS Jambandi e-service
 * Department of Rehabilitation, Haryana