Colonel Harsharan Singh Sandhu was born and brought up in Tarn Taran, Dist. Amritsar. After finishing his schooling from Sri Guru Arjun Dev High School , Taran Taran, he joined Khalsa College Amritsar. In 1948, he joined the Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun. After successfully graduating from IMA Dehradun, he was commissioned in the Indian Army on June 4, 1950 .

Col. Harsharan served in operational areas in J&K and the Eastern sectors of the country. In 1957-58, he served with the United Nations Forces in Gaza . After having served for 29 years, he retired from the Army in 1979 and settled down in Chandigarh .

In 1999, Col Harsharan and his colleagues, founded a national level political party called the Rashtriya Raksha Dal. The nucleus of the party, as the name suggests, is ex-Servicemen based. The party is open to the general public of all walks of life with no bias against rank, caste, creed, gender or religion. It is a secular party to the core. The slogan of the party is “Jai Jawan Jai Kissan”.

Col Harsharan is the President of the party and is active in politics. The party is registered with the Election Commission of India.