India's seniormost cabinet minister pushed back against the United States on Sunday, rejecting pressure from Washington to curtail oil imports from Iran and disapproving American political rants against outsourcing of jobs. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, an old hand at US India dynamic who has also handled the commerce, defense , and external affairs ministry in his four-decade political career, took the opportunity of a cultural sortie to US President hometown Chicago to obliquely criticize Obama for encouraging protectionist tendencies, suggesting it would be self-defeating and not in keeping with the times.