India, Feb. 4 -- Ravneet Singh Bittu, a minister in the Modi government, is making national headlines for being called "our traitor friend" by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. And for refusing to shake Rahul's outstretched hand. That's a long way for Bittu, 51, who was brought into active politics by Rahul Gandhi two decades ago.

The Gandhi scion wanted Bittu - now touted as a prominent Sikh face by the BJP - to carry forward the legacy of his grandfather Beant Singh, a Congress stalwart who was assassinated in a bomb attack by Khalistani militants in 1995 when he was chief minister of Punjab.

Bittu was 20 years old in 1995. He had already lost his father a decade earlier.

He became a businessman, and it took until 2007 for him to join ac...