DNA Edit: Withdrawing Haj subsidy - A welcome move...

In India, the binary between appeasement and secularism has blurred, so much so that the two disparate principles — one an electoral tactic, other a democratic grundnorm — now overlap to such an extent that in the grammar of contemporary politics, it is near impossible to distinguish one from the other.

The Haj subsidy for which the Congress has received its fair share of flak has now been withdrawn by the BJP government. The allegation of Congress appeasing Muslims would have carried more weight had it not been for the botched-up manner in which the UPA regime went about implementing the subsidy.

In fact, sections of the Muslim intelligentsia were so put-off by the Congress’s handling of the subsidy that they have wholeheartedly welcomed the move to withdraw the subsidy. For many years now, money earmarked as subsidy for the Hajjis was finding its way into the coffers of Air India, conveniently helping the moribund airline stay afloat, albeit in a limited manner. How did it work? Currently, Saudi Arabian authorities permit over 1,75,000 people from India to make the pilgrimage.

One can opt to travel by himself or get onboard with the Haj Committee of India (HCI), which functions as a middleman for the government; books tickets and arranges accommodation for the pilgrims. The total cost to a pilgrim — under the auspices of the HCI — amounts to a grand total of Rs 2,19,900. Included in this cost is the rip-off price of Rs 45,000 under the rubric of “subsidised return airfare”.

The catch is that this asking price exceeds the market fare by a mile. Even during peak seasons, the Delhi-Jeddah return tickets are in the ball-park range of Rs 30,000. Essentially, the UPA regime has been hitting two birds with one stone: It has been scoring brownie points with the Muslim community for instituting a subsidy while craftily remitting funds into Air India’s coffers. All along, it has conveniently sidestepped the fact that the subsidy was against the Quran — a fact that the Supreme Court recognised in 2012 in its order directing the Centre to stop the subsidy within a span of 10 years. But, it will not do to crucify the Congress alone for playing the appeasement game.

Even the BJP has been practising appeasement. In a secular country, the government is meant to be an umpire, a neutral player uninvested in the advancing the cause of any religion, caste or creed. That hasn’t been the case, per se. In 2015, the Akhilesh Yadav-led government doubled the Mansarovar subsidy yatra to Rs 50,000, followed by the Yogi Adityanath which doubled it in 2017 to a lakh.

In April 2016, the central government allocated Rs 100 crore to the Madhya Pradesh government for Simhastha Mahakumbh. Seeing how the Congress and the BJP use stratagems cut from the same cloth of political expediency, it is fair to say that none of the two can claim to sincerely serve the Constitution.

Notwithstanding, how distressing the saga might be, there still shines a silver lining: the money meant for the subsidy will be diverted for “educational empowerment of girls and women of the minority community”.