Sunday, April 8, 2007

Indian external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee has been taken to a Delhi Army Hospital after being injured in a car mishap in West Bengal. His condition is said to be stable. He has received injuries on the head and other body parts.

In statement, he said he would be back at work soon: “I am well but doctors have advised me 48 hours rest. I hope to be back to work after that period,” the Press Trust of India reported.

Mukherjee is one of the senior most politicians in the ruling Congress Party and is close to party supremo Sonia Gandhi. In a cabinet reshuffle in October last year, Mukherjee had been given the high profile post of India’s foreign minister which was lying vacant after the resignation of Natwar Singh. Until then he had been the minister for defence.

In view of this accident Mukherjee’s two day visit to Saudi Arabia where he was expected to call upon the Saudi king has been cancelled.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh received Mukherjee at the airport when he was brought back from West Bengal.