The government is ending a decades-long policy of offering discounted airfares to Muslims embarking on the Haj pilgrimage, it announced yesterday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has accused the Congress Party which introduced the Haj subsidy scheme in the 1950s of trying to woo Muslim voters through handouts.
Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the government wants to assist India’s roughly 175mn Muslims without resorting to political “appeasement” along religious lines.
“Development with dignity is what we believe in,” Naqvi said in announcing the decision to scrap the travel subsidy.
He said the cash saved from the scheme would be channelled into economic opportunities and education for Muslims.
Every year more than 100,000 pilgrims travel from India to Makkah for the pilgrimage.
The Supreme Court in 2012 said the scheme should be phased out, and that it contravened a fundamental tenet of Islam – that only those who could afford to make the pilgrimage do so.
But the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi spends millions for Hindus undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar and Kumbh Mela, a sacred bathing ritual that draws millions of people over four weeks.
Naqvi said 175,000 Indian Muslims would embark on Haj this year – a record number – suggesting enthusiasm for the annual pilgrimage would not shrink without the government’s financial assistance.
Muslim leaders in India have also urged the government to abolish the travel subsidy, saying state-run carrier Air India was the biggest beneficiary.
Naqvi said the subsidy ranged from Rs5bn-7bn, which mainly went to Air India that flew the pilgrims, along with Saudi Airlines, in a 50:50 ratio.
With the government already moving ahead with privatisation of Air India, the subsidy would not make sense, he said.
Naqvi said the withdrawal of subsidy would not make much difference in the airfare from major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata, though it would make travel costlier from smaller cities.
“But to offset this cost hike, we have for the first time given the choice to pilgrims to select their point of embarkation.
“So, for example, a pilgrim from Srinagar may now embark from Delhi, or a pilgrim from Gaya may embark from Kolkata to avoid extra expenses,” Naqvi said.
The minister said Saudi Arabia had also agreed to allow people to go on the Haj by ship, which is cheaper, and added that officials of both countries were working out the details.
However, the minister said the government would “fulfil all its responsibilities it has towards its citizens” and make all the arrangements for the pilgrims in Saudi Arabia apart from ensuring their safety, security and comfort.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad welcomed the move and said the real beneficiaries of the subsidy were not Muslim pilgrims “but the airlines”.
“The impression that was being given that the government was doing something extraordinary for Hajis by giving them subsidy is false,” he said.
Azad said the decision was taken by the Supreme Court in May 2012 asking the then Congress-led government to abolish the subsidy in a phased manner by 2022.
“We had started reducing it gradually. In 2012, it was around Rs650 crore but today it would be much less. The government is not disclosing it.”
The Congress also asked the government to honour the Supreme Court direction and utilise the funds saved on empowering the minority community through education and skill development, especially of girls.
All India Muslim Personal Law Board said the withdrawal of subsidy would not affect Muslim pilgrims because they did not get any direct benefit from it.
“If the government has abolished the subsidy it is between them and the Indian airlines. Hajis are nowhere in the picture,” AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Wali Rahmani said.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said he had been demanding its removal since 2006.
But he challenged the central government to stop the financial assistance and subsidy given to Hindu pilgrims in different parts of the country.
The MP said the BJP and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and others were raising a hue and cry over just Rs2bn and terming this as appeasement of minorities while billions of rupees were being provided for pilgrimage and religious events in various states.
Owaisi said the Haj subsidy anyway would have been phased out by 2022 as per the order of the Supreme Court and hence there was no need for the central government to create a hype over this.
The Hyderabad MP asked if the BJP governments at the Centre and in the states would phase out other subsidies as well.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi meets Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in Hyderabad yesterday. Owaisi challenged the central government to stop the financial assistance and subsidy given to Hindu pilgrims in different parts of the country.
