Govt of India wants to end rising Haj subsidy

[r3alist]

Rs 826 crore is about $186 million which should be spent on the development of poor people irrespective of religion!!!

you talk of helping the poor of your country but if you had such a bleeding heart why dont s see you objecting to the billions india is pouring into afghanistan?


this is not an enormous amount for india and atleast its helping indians nationals.

 

[riju78]

you talk of helping the poor of your country but if you had such a bleeding heart why dont s see you objecting to the billions india is pouring into afghanistan?


this is not an enormous amount for india and atleast its helping indians nationals.

Afghan aid is humanitarian and development which i may or may not support. Thats not the topic here. And my heart does bleed for my countrymen and that includes everyone. Jai hind

 

[EjazR]

The point is that taking money to perform Haj is not correct. I know of some strict Muslim who AVOID the govt. run Haj service and use private airlines so as to AVOID the subsidized travel fare to keep the Haj money completely personal.

The only thing if the GoI wants to help is probably just working on logistics arrangement of the type the Haj committees are involved in. Something similar to like the govt. is involved in Kumb Mela or Amarnath Yatra for example. Here the travel itself is not subsidized but there are facilities like first aid, security guides e.t.c. are provided by volunteers and govt.

But a cash subsidy like this is not needed. Moreover, like I said, this does not benefit the muslims directly but is just a subsidy to Air India.

On another note, I'd hope that Air India gets privatized but dunno when that will happen.

 

[Ingis]

One of my Muslim friends from Chennai told me that he traveled to Saudi for Hajj via Kuwait Airways because the ticket came out to be cheaper compared to Air India even after the Hajj subsidy.

Something is seriously wrong here. It seems that the subsidy is not reaching the Hajj pilgrims directly but is adding to the cash reserves of the ministers.

 

[EjazR]

^^^ Well its not that difficult to understand.

If you use private airlines or if the GoI had done open tender and competive bidding, most airlines cost around INR 20,000. The GoI however mandates cumpolsory use of Air India to use the subsidy which charges around INR 40,000 less a subsidy of currently INR 16,000 making it around INR24,000

Still much more expensive than the INR 20,000 it would have cost for a private airline.

So this money actually goes to Air India which ends up receiving a cash infusion.The money doesn't directly help the Hajis / Haj Yatris

 

[Fighter488]

An old news, but it shows that demand of scrapping the Hajj Subsidy is not new. The suggestion of using tax payers money on education and health is a sound one.

Fighter

‘Haj subsidy unIslamic, use that money on our education, health’​

At a time when even the Prime Minister is emphasising that Muslims need to be given greater access to modern education to remove their social backwardness, several Muslim intellectuals, religious scholars and leaders are suggesting that the Government scrap the Haj subsidy and spend the money instead on schools, healthcare and other basic infrastructure for the welfare of the community. Some even describe the subsidy as “vote-bank politics” and say it’s unIslamic to undertake any obligation during Haj.



Demanding an end to the subsidy, Maulana Mehmood Madani, Rajya Sabha member and general secretary of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, says “It is against the Shariat to be under any kind of obligation while undertaking Haj. According to the Quran, only those Muslims who can afford the expenses should perform Haj. It’s recommended only for adult, financially able and sane Muslims.”


‘Haj subsidy unIslamic, use that money on our education, health’

 

[Fighter488]

Haj hijacked​

Ramazan is with us and the sacred month will be followed by a break of eight weeks after which begins the Haj in Mecca. As usual, the season allows bigoted politicians and ignorant media to repeat charges of Muslim appeasement exemplified by the Haj subsidy and the matter of an official delegation.

The Haj in India has been hijacked by those who want to perpetuate state monopoly over air travel and related politics, from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh. The central government is involved in two Haj matters: travel and the goodwill delegation.

What exactly is the Haj subsidy? When and why was it initiated? Who is the net beneficiary, the haji or the carrier? Is it appropriate for a secular state to fund religious travel? Where is the impediment for its termination?

First, as everyone knows or ought to know, Haj — the fifth pillar of Islam — is obligatory for Muslims only if they are financially capable and physically fit for travel to Mecca. Individual Muslims alone can determine if they can afford the pilgrimage. There is no such thing as a “subsidised” Haj. If so performed, it is null and void.

India is among the top ten countries sending hajis. Until the early 1960s when Bombay was connected to Jeddah by air, most pilgrims went by boats run by the Mogul Line Ltd, a British-controlled company. In 1975, the Shipping Corporation of India took over the Mogul Line.

The oil crisis of the early 1970s made sea travel costlier than air travel, so the ships were abandoned. The government gave Air India a monopoly over Haj travel in 1975. The then prevailing oil crisis further escalated air fares, forcing the government to introduce “Haj subsidy” to Air India, not to individual pilgrims.

Who pays the subsidy? Is it the ministry of external affairs or the ministry of civil aviation? What is the amount? Does it change annually?

These are matters of detail, but irrelevant to the principle that the state should not subsidise religious pilgrimage of any kind to any place, irrespective of religion. In this particular case, the canard that the state is paying Muslims to perform Haj has done immense damage to an already demonised community. Senior Muslim leader Syed Shahabuddin and the young Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi have both expressed the will of the community to terminate the subsidy.

The impediment to abolition is Air India, a state corporation. The official carrier is afraid of competition. We have abolished the privy purses of maharajas, so why is the maharaja an exception? The Union government, through the Central Haj Committee, should invite bids from various Indian airlines for Haj travel and designate the lowest bidder as the official carrier. Deregulation will end Air India’s monopoly and terminate the canard that the state is subsidising Haj.

The second matter in which the government is involved in Muslim pilgrimage is the goodwill delegation. It originated in the aftermath of 1965 war with Pakistan. Its diplomats and officials used the Haj gathering to present their perspective on the conflict in Kashmir. The ministry of external affairs decided to counter by sending a goodwill delegation to Mecca, obviously at state expense.

Since its inception in 1966, it has been led by a union minister who meets Saudi counterparts and others. The delegation in the early years consisted of five members. Now it numbers 70, including the spouses of the delegates. Who are the members of the delegation? How does one get selected? What do these delegates do while in the Islamic Holy Land?

The corridors of power, chambers of ministers, houses of MPs in New Delhi are filled with aspirants to the delegation. They are mostly self-seeking politicians, unemployed, unemployable maulanas and maulavis seeking a free ride at the tax payer’s expense. This year, the government has budgeted as much as Rs 6 crore for this delegation. There are only informal qualifications for membership in the delegation: a wink from a minister, a nod from a powerful politician, the goodwill of a high official.

The Official Haj Delegation strains the resources of the Indian consulate-general in Jeddah, whose primary duty during the Haj is to look after the well-being of pilgrims. Instead, they are compelled to tend to the whims of rich and powerful politicians masquerading as Muslim leaders. It does not behove a secular state to use a religious occasion to parade official Muslims — who in any case are busy partying in Jeddah while their begums are on a shopping spree in the malls of Arabia.

It is time to abolish the Haj goodwill delegation. There must be more imaginative ways of accomplishing the original purpose — countering Pakistani versions of the Kashmir conflict. The delegations are not earning the goodwill of Indian Muslims.

(Hyderabad-born, MIT-based Omar Khalidi is the author of Muslims in Indian Economy, and Khaki and Ethnic Violence)


The truth about Haj 'Subsidy'

 

[ramu]

Guys, please stop wasting time on this thread. Its no point quoting article after article. Just chill.