NEW DELHI, Sept 24 (Agencies): India has vowed to stand firm on a multi-billion dollar deal to buy warplanes from France's Dassault Aviation.
The opposition Congress party called on Monday for an inquiry into allegations of wrongdoing.
Former French President Francois Hollande, who approved the deal when he was in office, triggered a political storm in India after he said the Indian government influenced the choice of a local partner in the deal.
New Delhi has denied the allegations, but opposition parties are gunning for Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the 2016 purchase of 36 Rafale planes estimated to be worth $8.7 billion, saying he overpaid for the planes and had not been transparent.
Congress' national spokesman Sanjay Jha said they would call for a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the deal, and organize public protests.
Meanwhile, India successfully test-fired an interceptor missile off the coast in its eastern sate of Odisha, officials said Monday.
The missile test was carried out Sunday night from Abdul Kalam Island of the integrated test range (ITR).
"We have achieved a major milestone in developing a two-layer ballistic missile defence system," an official said. "The Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV) mission is for engaging the targets in the exo-atmosphere region at an altitude above 50 km of the earth's atmosphere."
Reports quoting India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) officials as saying both the PDV interceptor and the target missile were successfully engaged.
"In an automated operation, radar-based detection and tracking system detected and tracked the enemy's ballistic missile," the reports quoted officials as saying.
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