Utterly butterly

A Parliamentary delegation recently visited Australia. On their first evening, they were invited to a drinks reception, with dinner laid out on tables nearby. Soon after they arrived, Thawar Chand Gehlot, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament (MP) and member of the BJP's parliamentary board, said he needed to eat something because he had to take some medicines. "Sure, why don't you have a dinner roll," suggested a colleague. So Gehlot sat down at the dinner table, took a knife, sliced the roll and buttered it. As he was eating, the hosts were ushered in for an introduction. As the MPs stood in a row, a colleague saw Gehlot put the butter knife in his mouth. "What are you doing?" he asked in a whisper, horrified. "Oh, there was some butter left on the knife," said Gehlot, oblivious to any breach of etiquette, and wiped the knife clean with his tongue. The hosts watched bemused - and hugely pleased, it turned out. "He likes Australian butter," one of them told an Indian MP later, whose toes curled in embarrassment.