New Delhi/Lucknow: Majority of Muslim clerics and leaders Tuesday welcomed the
Supreme Court ruling directing the government to eliminate in the
next 10 years the subsidy given to Hajis - pilgrims to the holy
Makkah.
The clerics and leaders said that instead of providing subsidies,
the Haj committee, an autonomous body under the Indian government
responsible for making arrangement for Haj pilgrimage, should be
revamped.
The leaders demanded open tendering of tickets which would result
in Air India, which at present has the ticketing monopoly, having
to compete with other airlines to attract maximum travellers and
giving cheaper tickets.
"We welcome this ruling. If people from other religions don't get
subsidies for pilgrimages, why should we. We all are equal
citizens of the country," Mukarram Ahmed, Shahi Imam of Delh's
Fatehpuri Masjid, told IANS.
Agreed Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari: "It should
not take ten years for the ban on subsidy to come into effect but
it should be done away with within a year."
"The Haj committee should be made more powerful and better
services, including cheap tickets, should be offered to those
going on the pilgrimage," Vice-Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband
Mufti Abul Qasim Nomani told IANS.
"There should be open tendering of tickets so that there is
competition and we get the best deal," he added.
Bukhari slammed the present subsidy scheme and accused Air India
of overcharging.
"Just because they have a monopoly, a Delhi to Jeddah ticket costs
us Rs.45,000 whereas Saudi Arabian airlines' ticket costs only
Rs.22,000. Where is the money going? ... in the pockets of Air
India," said Bukhari.
Sunni community leader Haji Khalid Rasheed too said they were
demanding for a long time that the subsidy by the union government
be withdrawn.
"We have asked the government to axe the subsidy and to
alternately follow it up with open tendering of air tickets… which
would bring down the ticket prices heavily," he said in Lucknow.
However, some like Shia cleric Kalbe Jawwad of Lucknow said the
apex court was "not within its rights to make laws" as it was a
custodian of laws and the ruling may hit the poor Muslims who
would be deprived of their holy Haj.
Agreed Wasim Ahmad, Uttar Pradesh minister for basic education,
who said he was "feeling let down" by the ruling. "What can I say
on this, it is sad ... but then it is that way that the apex court
works," he mused.
Many said that if someone is poor and not able to undertake a Haj,
there is nothing wrong in it.
"A Haj is undertaken only if you have the money, are in good
health and have performed all your duties towards your family.
Going on a Haj with money you borrowed from someone is absolutely
prohibited," said Mukarram Ahmed.
"The withdrawal of subsidy won't have any effect on us and we have
no objection," he added.
When IANS contacted the Haj Committee of India's Delhi office, the
officer in charge refused to comment on the ruling.
India provides subsidy to over a lakh pilgrims who go to Makkah
and Madina annually and spends over Rs.600 crore ($120 million)
every year on the pilgrimage.
The government provided subsidised air fare to 120,131 pilgrims in
2009, to 126,191 pilgrims in 2010, and 125,051 pilgrims in 2011.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam Tuesday
directed the government to eliminate the subsidy for Haj pilgrims
in the next 10 years. The court also directed that the goodwill
delegation sent by the government every year to Makkah should now
be scaled down to two from its present strength of 30.
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