FM forever

Minister of Road Transport and Highways C P Joshi managed to turn intended praise for Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee into a faux pas at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. Speaking at a plenary session about Mukherjee’s excellence as a finance minister, Joshi said when he began his career in politics in the 1980s, Mukherjee was the finance minister and 30 years later he held the same office. Hearing a guffaw from the crowd, an amused Mukherjee looked at Joshi, at which the highways minister, realising what he had said, couldn’t do much but look down.