Man of action

At a press conference to clarify a news item on a World Bank report saying a National Highways Authority official had been bribed, Road Transport Minister C P Joshi looked visibly irritated. This was not, as many thought, because of the news of corruption in a key agency under his ministry but the suggestion that he had not taken action on it. Responding to persistent questions from a journalist, he lost his cool and almost shouted, “Do not think that we have acted only when the report appeared in a newspaper? Do not take credit for that… I can show documents to prove that we acted on the report much earlier....”