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Politicians welcome Supreme Court’s directive to phase out Haj subsidy | The political leadership on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to phase out subsidies given out to Muslim pilgrims who undertake the religious Haj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. A special bench of the apex court had earlier in the day issued the orders to strike down Haj subsidies and gradually
phase out the process in the next ten years. The bench also directed the government
to reduce two of its representatives in the Prime Minister's goodwill delegation
to Saudi Arabia falling under Haj subsidy costs. The court said that it would
look into the functioning of the Haj Committee of India and its procedure for
selecting people for the pilgrimage. Speaking about the court's decision in New
Delhi , leader of ruling Congress party, Salman Khurshid said that they had been
working out for a solution since long and now the apex court has voiced their
efforts with the decision. "Discussions have been going on in the government regarding
the subsidy from the last five years. The conditions under which the Haj subsidy
had been enforced have changed now. The subsidy is not received by the pilgrims,
but by the airlines. So we had taken decision on the changes in the arrangements.
The rollback on subsidy was being reduced by rupees 4000 each year. And the Supreme
Court has given the orders in the same direction as well," said Khurshid. Welcoming
the decision, main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukhtar Abbas
Naqvi said that this decision will empower the pilgrims to choose the airlines
of their choice for Haj pilgrimage. "The Haj subsidy had been provided so long
to cover the losses in the government's various departments and especially in
Air India . The Haj subsidy should be ended and along with that the pilgrims should
have the freedom to go for Haj on any airlines of their own choice," he said.
Leader of the Muslim minority party the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen,
Asaduddin Owaisi said that the pilgrims never received the amount being spent
under the cover of Haj subsidy. "The reason being that the Haj subsidy which is
given to Air India, it is not given to any Haj pilgrim that is roundabout to
nearly rupees six billions or something which is given every year. So a Muslim
who goes for performing Haj will go if one is financially and economically well
off. And it is incumbent upon him to go, and the word that is used is 'Wajib'
which means he has to go. A person who is not financially and economically well
off, he has no need to go for performing Haj. And under this garb of subsidy,
it is going to Air India, sick airlines," he said. The Muslim leader added that
the amount that was spared for Haj subsidy should be spent to educate girls of
the Muslim community. The court's decision also evoked reactions from hard core
right wing Hindu leader like BJP's Yogi Adityanath who said that it was a sinister
attempt by the government to appease the Muslim community by wasting public money.
"All the traditional religious pilgrimages of the country which have been going
on since time immemorial like the Amarnath, Sabarimala, Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimages,
they all face problems from the government. The government never supports them.
On the other hand the taxes which come from Hindu temples and other Hindu citizens
are spent to please a particular section of the population in the guise of Haj
subsidy. The kinds of loot of public wealth are against secularism and are misdeeds
of the government," he said. The apex court was hearing an appeal filed by the
federal government that challenged the Bombay High Court's judgement, which had
earlier directed the Ministry of External Affairs to allow certain private operators
to manage the services of 800 of the 11,000 pilgrims earmarked under the subsidized
quota provided by the government. Earlier, the bench had also rapped the federal
government for politicising the Haj pilgrimage by permitting official delegations
to accompany the pilgrims, for which the government offered huge subsidy. Haj
is a religious pilgrimage to holy places of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia that
devout Muslims undertake. Muslims who are physically and financially able are
required to perform the Haj at least once in a lifetime, as one of the five pillars
of Islam.
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