In a bid to puncture Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's vibrant Gujarat programme for attracting the big ticket investments, the finance ministry is asking the nationalised banks not to get involved in the process and better if they keep off.

Officials from finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's office are calling up chairmen of banks to drop hints that their officers should not sign the MOUs (memoranda of understanding) the Gujarat government is making with the industrialists for the prospective investments in the state.

There are, however, no official instructions to this effect. The bank chairmen are only told that they will have the consequences for making any financial commitments with regards to the MOUs signed during the vibrant Gujarat mobilisation by Modi.

They are also warned that it is not a government programme for which they should make the commitments and they should better insist for completion of documentation instead of agree on any proposals on the spot.

The message is clear. It is a BJP government in Gujarat and the Congress-led UPA government is not prepared to accept Modi's taunts that he can get more investments in his state that are more than all the investments the Centre can get in India.

Inquiries showed that the Congress ministers and MPs had met Mukherjee a few days ago to express concern over the banks going out of the way to make Modi's programme of vibrant Gujarat a success. Minister of state for energy Bharat Solanki had mobilised them to meet Mukherjee in a delegation.