Buddha got carried away: Pranab

kolkata: west bengal chief minister buddhadeb bhattacharjee had got carried away when he said anit-national activities were being undertaken from unrecognised madrasas, feels pranab mukherjee. the chief minister's subsequent volte-face is also in keeping with the tradition in communist parties. "they take a decision only to say later that the decision was wrong.this is because communists in india have always failed to make an objective assessment of a situation," mukherjee said, speaking to newspersons in kolkata on thursday, adding that the present chief minister was also not free from this shortcoming. mukherjee explained that the chief minister's subsequent backtracking on the issue has exposed the conflict between the cm's role as an administrator and his party's "doctrinnaire" line. "the cm should have either talked it over with his party. or else he should have told the party to stay clear off his duties as an administrator," mukherjee said. "before urging madrassahs to join the mainstream, the chief minister should have realised that he had no authority to do so," mukherjee said. the constitution provided safeguards to minorities to pursue their culture and religion and the state had no authority to infringe upon this. "all the state can do is refrain from providing finance," mukherjee pointed out. the pcc president also strongly criticised the centre over its disinvestment spree. "we understand that the number of government employees must be reduced. but we are opposed to selling off psus," mukherjee said. seeling off assets to make up fiscal deficit was unprecedented, he pointed out. trinamul slams cm: trinamul congress also criticised the chief minister over the madrassah controversy. "this backtracking is consistent with the chief minister. we cannot make out between the face and the mask," said leader of opposition pankaj banerjee. the trinamul camp also reiterated its stand that the present state government was not an elected government because it came to power on the strength of bogus voters.