E-Paper
It's all in the Abdullah-Pilot family
It was all in the family for the Abdullah/Pilot clan with father-in-law and National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah being sworn in as cabinet minister and son-in-law Sachin Pilot of the Congress becoming minister of state.
It was all in the family for the Abdullah/Pilot clan with father-in-law and National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah being sworn in as cabinet minister and son-in-law Sachin Pilot of the Congress becoming minister of state.
The flamboyant Abdullah, 72, with a traditional Kashmiri karakul cap and dressed in a white Nehru jacket with a red rose pinned in his lapel and a bright pink handkerchief peeping out from the breast pocket was sworn in first.
An hour later, his 32-year-old son-in-law Sachin Pilot, married to Abdullah's daughter Sara, with a bright red Rajasthani turban and his usual kurta-pyjama followed suit and took oath as minister of state.
Looking on was a proud Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who watched the one-and-a-half hour ceremony with rapt attention.
Just before the swearing-in ceremony started, the three were seen hugging and patting each other in a show of family pride. Abdullah senior, who flew to Johannesburg to catch up on the IPL cricket final after he was left out of the first round of the induction of cabinet ministers, could not have been happier at the way it all ended.
