Personality Profile — HoshiarpurToday.com
For Hoshiarpur, Avinash Rai Khanna’s public career connects three familiar worlds: the lawyer’s practice, the elected representative’s constituency and the institutions to which citizens turn for help. From representing Garhshankar in the Punjab Assembly to serving in both Houses of Parliament, his journey has carried a strong connection with the district.
A lawyer by profession and a Bharatiya Janata Party politician, Khanna’s record also includes service on the Punjab State Human Rights Commission and leadership responsibilities in the Indian Red Cross Society. Together, these roles offer a fuller picture of his public life than election results alone.
Education and a grounding in law
Born on 30 December 1960, Khanna studied commerce at D.A.V. College, Jalandhar, and law at Panjab University, Chandigarh. His 2004 election affidavit records matriculation from Hans Raj Arya School, Garhshankar, in 1977, a B.Com in 1981 and an LL.B. in 1984. A published parliamentary conference biography also lists a Diploma in Business Management.
Before entering the Assembly, he served on the Hoshiarpur Planning Board from 1997 to 2002. That early institutional role placed district-level concerns within a career that would later move to state and national platforms.
Garhshankar, Hoshiarpur and two Houses of Parliament
Khanna was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Garhshankar in 2002 and served until 2004. He led the BJP Legislature Group in Punjab during 2002–2003.
In 2004, voters elected him to the 14th Lok Sabha from Hoshiarpur. His parliamentary career subsequently continued in the Rajya Sabha, where he represented Punjab from 10 April 2010 to 9 April 2016.
His farewell remarks in the Rajya Sabha on 15 March 2016 reflected on this progression—from MLA and state party leadership to the Lok Sabha and the Upper House. He also acknowledged his responsibility as the party’s Chief Whip, a role concerned with coordinating parliamentary business and members’ participation.
The parliamentary record gives substance to that account. PRS Legislative Research’s tracker records 92 per cent attendance, participation in 145 debates, 588 questions and five private member’s bills during his Rajya Sabha tenure. These figures describe recorded activity; they do not, by themselves, measure the results of individual interventions.
Human rights and the grievances behind public office
Between his two parliamentary tenures, Khanna served as a member of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission. The commission’s own register gives the dates as 12 May 2009 to 15 March 2010.
A National Human Rights Commission report of an awareness programme in Hoshiarpur records his concern with citizens’ grievances, failures in the performance of public duties, and the district’s geographical and connectivity challenges. It is a useful local thread in his wider career: the relationship between an institution and the person approaching it for assistance.
Contemporary reporting also documented his visits to institutions, including a Ludhiana observation home in July 2009, where he heard the concerns of young inmates. Such visits formed part of his work during his state commission membership.
A humanitarian role beyond elected office
Khanna has also served as national Vice-Chairman of the Indian Red Cross Society. The Punjab Red Cross’s 2020–21 annual report records his election to that office for a third consecutive term and describes Initiatives, a compilation of Red Cross activities introduced during his first tenure.
A Punjab Red Cross account of Youth Red Cross Day records his participation as chief guest at a programme honouring Bhai Ghanaiya Ji. The event included a first-aid demonstration, hygiene-kit distribution and the provision of medicines for patients in need. These documented activities provide a concrete view of the community-service setting in which he has worked.
A place in Hoshiarpur’s public-life archive
Khanna’s career can be followed through distinct chapters: district planning, the Punjab Assembly, Parliament, the state human rights commission and the Red Cross. Each involved a different kind of responsibility, while Hoshiarpur and Garhshankar remained central to his political story.
For readers across Doaba, that is the significance of this profile—a record of how a locally rooted legal and political career developed across institutions of representation, public accountability and humanitarian service.
Photo: Avinash Rai Khanna in New Delhi, 7 October 2015. Vice President’s Secretariat, Government of India, via Press Information Bureau and Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under Government Open Data License–India. Existing portrait crop reproduced; no endorsement implied.
Sources and further reading
- ADR/MyNeta: 2004 election affidavit and education details
- APDA: 2014 parliamentary conference biography
- PRS Legislative Research: Rajya Sabha term and activity
- Rajya Sabha proceedings, 15 March 2016
- Punjab State Human Rights Commission: former members
- NHRC: Hoshiarpur human rights awareness programme
- The Indian Express: observation-home visit, 26 July 2009
- Punjab Red Cross: annual report 2020–21
- Punjab Red Cross: Youth Red Cross Day
Research checked on 29 October 2026. Historical positions are described as such; this profile is not an endorsement or an original interview.