The below snippet, within an equation array environment, gives the subsequent rendering:
F\left[C^{(n-k)}_{P_{ji}}\right]

But when I add color to the snippet (using the color package) as below (adding line breaks here to facilitate legibility) in the same environment I get the subsequent bit of unpleasantness:
\color[rgb]{0.000,0.000,1.000}F\left[\color[rgb]{0.000,0.750,0.000}C
\color[rgb]{0.000,0.750,0.000}^{(n-k)}\color[rgb]{0.750,0.750,0.000}
_{P_{ji}}\color[rgb]{0.000,0.000,1.000}\right]

I get this whether or not I include the color codes for the super and subscripts prior to the ^ and _ or within the subsequent {}s.
1 Why am I getting this discrepancy?
2 Can I easily correct it in my code using these packages?
3 Is this a bug?
And here is a full document to illustrate:
\documentclass[fleqn,10pt]{article}
\newcommand\independent{\protect\mathpalette{\protect\independenT}{\perp}}
\def\independenT#1#2{\mathrel{\rlap{$#1#2$}\mkern2mu{#1#2}}}
\usepackage{color}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\begin{document}
\begin{eqnarray}
F\left[C^{(n-k)}_{P_{ji}}\right]
\end{eqnarray}
\begin{eqnarray}\color[rgb]{0.000,0.000,1.000}F\left[\color[rgb]{0.000,0.750,0.000}C\color[rgb]{0.000,0.750,0.000}^{(n-k)}\color[rgb]{0.750,0.750,0.000}_{P_{ji}}\color[rgb]{0.000,0.000,1.000}\right]\end{eqnarray}
\end{document}

\mathnormalcolor{}or\mathtcolor{normal}{}? (In my case\colorlet{saved}{.}solved my problem even better than\normalcolorI found out in the meantime.) – Jakob Nov 06 '23 at 15:28\normalcolor? – egreg Nov 06 '23 at 15:40\mathcolor{red}{C}^{a}_{b}– egreg Nov 06 '23 at 16:08