Family ties

Family ties that help you weather a storm can also land you in a jam, as Satyajit Singh Majithia, the president of Khalsa College Governing Council, found out recently. While addressing the annual convocation of Khalsa College, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the Majithia family had received the "maximum benefit of power". He went on to elaborate that Majithia's son, Bikram Majithia, was a Cabinet minister in the Punjab government, his son-in-law, Sukhbir Singh Badal, is deputy chief minister, and his daughter, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, is a minister at the Centre. Badal's remarks left everyone present - including Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Bharatiya Janata Party's Punjab chief Kamal Sharma - thoroughly embarrassed.