Home By the Way His Master’s Voice
By the Way

His Master’s Voice

img-april14-40

No Chief Minister does any “real” work by himself. In every Chief Minister’s office, there are pawns who implement the desires and wishes of the master. Haryana is no exception. Mahender Singh Chopra is the Man Friday of Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He is a Principal Officer on Special Duty to the Chief Minister of Haryana. Don’t get confused by his surname. He is not a Punjabi, but a Jat like Hooda. He belongs to Narwana where the Jats live in Chopra patti. So, like the Akalis, he has borrowed the title of Chopra. Chopra was a clerk in Parliament in the earlier days of his career but he came in touch with a veteran leader of Haryana, Col Ram Singh, through his original mentor, Chaudhary Birender Singh. Slowly he made himself indispensable and got himself appointed as PS to Col Singh when he was a central minister in the Cabinet. Hooda, Col Singh and Birender Singh were the trio opposing BhajanLal within the Congress. Soon, Chopra developed a rapport with Hooda. When Hooda became Chief Minister, he appointed Chopra as OSD in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. Naturally, the bureaucracy was not too happy about the induction of an outsider in the Chief Minister’s office. So Hooda had to announce in a meeting that Chopra’s instructions should be treated as his instructions. Since then, Chopra is ‘his master’s voice’ in the State. If you have some work to be done, just contact Chopra and listen to the music as the state administrative machinery dances to his tunes.

Related Articles

Prime Minister Narendra Modi
By the Way

PMO overhaul

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reshuffled his office during the Covid-19 crisis....

Dome_of_North_Block
By the Way

Hole in Pocket

Covid-19 has without doubt created havoc in India. It has impacted even...

JK map
By the Way

KAS : Murmu’s Challenge

Girish Chand Murmu, a 1985-batch IAS (retd) officer of the Gujarat cadre,...

red tepism
By the Way

Red tapism prevails

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sought details about movement of files, particularly...