National Development Council (NDC) meet, held in the backdrop of CBI summons to Gujarat home minister Amit Shah and the BJP?s boycott of a luncheon meeting called by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leaders of the opposition in Parliament, lived up to its tense foreground.

Chief ministers of BJP ruled states, especially Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi were combative of the government.

On the protests and bandhs organised by the opposition, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said if bandhs could curb price rise, he would have called one himself. He also reportedly said that the opposition was trying to make an economic issue political.

?Inflation is an economic problem which can only be solved through those means,? he is reported to have said.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, still smarting after announcing the resignation of his home minister following a probe by the CBI, was at his caustic best.

When the issue of corruption in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MNREGA) came up, he said, ?There could be a CBI or JPC probe in the matter, if they had time to spare.?

A reference to the BJP?s stand that the CBI was being over employed in going after the UPA government?s political rivals.

Significantly, home minister P Chidamanbaram came in for praise from Modi as did home secretary G K Pillai. He reportedly said that Chidamabaram was doing a good job and should be supported.

After Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat thanked the Centre for funds to celebrate the golden jubilee of the state, Modi interjected that Gujarat too was completing 50 years but no funds had been forthcoming from the Centre.

He was not the only BJP chief minister to speak out against the Centre. Chattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh said that plans by the Planning Commission and some NGOs to give panchayats the right to collect forest produce would damage the existing structure in the state and declared himself against the scheme.

While the 11th Plan was reviewed at the meeting, political rivalries undoubtably cast its long shadow.