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Congress says Haj subsidy won't help pilgrims
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday said it won't help pilgrims much as the subsidy, in fact, was going to the airlines because of artificially inflated fares.
Updated : Jan 17, 2018, 06:05 AM IST
 "Ghulam Nabi Azad-pti")
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In a bid to counter the government's decision to end the Haj subsidy and use it to educate girls, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday said it won't help pilgrims much as the subsidy, in fact, was going to the airlines because of artificially inflated fares.
"The normal fare from any part of India to Jeddah is Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000, whereas the Airlines, mainly Air India, were charging fare to the tune of Rs 70,000 during the two months of Haj. Despite subsidised rates, they were raking in profits resulting in no benefit to the Haj pilgrims," said Azad.
He said the Congress does not have any issue with the government but wants to put the record straight that the Modi government is merely implementing the decision of the Supreme Court that had directed the government do away with the Haj subsidy by 2022 and use it for social development of the minorities.
"The Supreme Court bench of Justice Aftab Alam in May 2012 had asked the government to remove Haj subsidy in a phased manner in 10 years by 2022. He had specifically said that it was benefiting only the Airlines,"said Azad adding that the Congress led UPA government had started implementing the decision.
He said the government should try to start ship voyage for Haj which because of cheap fare would help poor Muslims undertake the holy pilgrimage.
In fact, after the Supreme Court's directive to do away with Haj subsidy in 2012, the then minister of minority affairs in Congress government, Salman Khurshid had welcomed the decision and said the discussion to roll back the Haj subsidy was under way for four years.
Several Muslim leaders and clerics had also agreed with the Apex Court's decision saying Justice Alam was right in saying that it was against Islam's tenets for the state to provide such a subsidy and the pilgrimage to Mecca was required only of Muslims who could afford it.
The government was spending about Rs. 600 to 700 crore annually to subsidise over 1.5 lakh Muslims bound for Haj to Mecca and Medina.
