But despite demands by ruling Conservative party MPs and others to end it, Britain today defended its multi-million pound aid to India saying "now is not the time to quit".
The clamour to stop British aid reached a high after India last week decided to select the French fighter Rafale over Eurofighter Typhoon, which is partly manufactured in Britain, as its mainstay multi-role combat aircraft.
BJP MP Balbir Punj said, "I am surprised that in India which is seen as a rising economic power, inspite of the misgovernance by the UPA, should take these peanuts from the UK or anywhere else.
"I will call upon the government to stop this aid immediately. That will be a proper and fit reply to the arrogance of those British who think that they can influence the decision-making in India with the help of a few pennies."
Senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said Britain was "reacting in a typical manner in which a conservative Tory-led government would react. They are saying that if you are not meeting our interests, why should we give you any aid."
"So any aid, which is tied or conditional, is not going to be helpful to India," Yechury said.
Referring to the decision on Rafale, Union Minister and Congress leader Veerappa Moily said, "Business cannot work on monopolies, but (depends) on competitiveness. Whatever the best quality and whatever the prices, we do business.
"Any country cannot dictate and say that you do business only with me and not anybody else, I don't think this can run. We have to deal with things that are in the best interests of the country."
We are changing our approach to India: Britain
Britain today defended its multi- million pound aid to India, amid demands by ruling Conservative party MPs and others to end it, saying "now is not the time to quit".
International aid is among few areas that have not been subjected to deep funding cuts by the economically-strapped David Cameron government, which has faced much ridicule and more for continuing to send aid to an increasingly prosperous India.
The passionate debate was reignited on Sunday with the re-publication of remarks by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who said in 2010 that in the overall context of funds that India spends on development, British aid was "peanuts", and one that India could do without.
A spokesperson of the Department for International Development (DFID) told PTI today that there were no plans to reconsider the aid programme to India.
He said: "We reviewed the India programme last year. There are no plans to review again".
Conservative MPs Philip Davies, Douglas Carswell and Peter Bone joined a critical chorus, urging Prime Minister Cameron to immediately end aid to India in view of Mukherjee's re-published remarks, but International Development secretary Andrew Mitchell defended the aid.
Mitchell said: "We will not be in India for ever but now is not the time to quit. Our completely revamped programme is in Indian's and Britain's national interest and is a small part of a much wider relationship between our two countries".
He added: "We are changing our approach to India. We will target aid at three of India's poorest states, rather than central Government. We will invest more in the private sector, with our aid programme having some of the characteristics of a sovereign wealth fund."
Mukherjee's remarks sparked off waves of comments by readers of The Sunday Telegraph and the tabloid press that often splashes reports of millions of pounds of British money allegedly being pocketed by corrupt officials in India.
The remarks were seen as another rebuff after India last week preferred the French fighter Rafale to the Typhoon, which is partly build in Britain. The tabloid press today went to town with demands by Conservative MPs demanding an immediate end to the aid to India.
Tory MP Davies said: "India spends tens of billions on defence and hundreds of millions a year on a space programme - in those circumstances it would be unacceptable to give them aid even if they were begging us for it".
He added: "Given that they don't even want it, it would be even more extraordinary if it were to be allowed to continue. There will be millions of hard-pressed families wondering why on earth the Government is wasting money in this way."
Fellow Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: "This is concrete proof that Britain's aid programme is run in the interests of Whitehall officials and the DFID machine. The fact is that India's economy is growing much faster than our own. We should be encouraging free trade with them and trying to learn from them rather than handing out patronising lectures."
Another Conservative MP, Peter Bone, urged ministers to abandon the 'vanity project' of pursuing a target to hand out 0.7 per cent of the UK's entire national income in aid.
He said: "India has its own foreign aid programme so it is absurd for us to be still giving them aid. They are more than capable of looking after their own issues. As for the 0.7 per cent target, it is a vanity project that is being pursued for no good reason at all. I do not understand the Government's position on this and I don't think the British public do either."
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