By Abdul Bari Masoud, Muslim Mirror
NEW DELHI: The Haj Committee of India’s present and former members are not happy with the Government of India’s abrupt announcement of withdrawing of the so-called “Haj subsidy”. They said the sudden withdrawal of the subsidy seems arbitrary and motivated by other considerations because the Supreme Court had given a verdict in 2012 that the Haj subsidy should be phased out over a ten year period. They said it would be extra burdened financially on the Haj pilgrims particularly on those who would go to Saudi Arabia from other than Mumbai, New Delhi, and Calcutta and Hyderabad embarkation points as a fare from Srinagar would be around Rs 1.25 lakh.
Haj Committee India (HCI) expressed its helplessness on the matter which had submitted a memorandum recently to the Ministry of Minority Affairs demanding to retain the subsidy till 2022 as directed by the Supreme Court.
Talking to Muslim Mirror, HCI chairman Chaudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser said it is the decision of the GOI, and the HCI can’t do anything to change it. However, he said, the HCI has convened a meeting on January 20 to decide the course of action in this regard.
Admitting that it would cause financial problems to Haj pilgrims, he said we have already given the option to pilgrims of choosing embarkation points. We asked the Kashmir Haj pilgrims, if they want to go from Srinagar, they would have to pay Rs 1.25 lakh and if they opt for New Delhi embarkation point, they would have to pay Rs 55, 000 to 65,000.
He pointed out that Haj fare cannot be brought down until and unless the Haj Committee gets rights to float global tender as it cannot do right now under the present Haj Act of India which authorizes only Air India to transport Indian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, ferrying to Hajis is also a bilateral agreement between India and Saudi Arabia that is also a big impediment in this direction, he added.
However, former chief executive officer and secretary of HCI, Shabi Ahmad said the so-called bilateral agreement is not a mandatory and it is a recent innovation adopted since last 10 – 15 years. Calling the Haj subsidy as ‘misnomer’, he told Muslim Mirror that under this arrangement, Saudi Airline or for that matter any other airlines grab the 50% amount of Haj subsidy, which is, in fact, a National Loss and now since last 2- 3 years this benefit extended to another Saudi based agency.
By removing the Haj subsidy component, it would be very difficult to hire the aircraft and the only remedy would be to entrust the operation to Air India either on its own resources or under Global tendering, he suggested.
“It is beyond comprehension that Indian pilgrims pay Rs. 60,000 to 65,000 for Haj journey, while generally during the non-Haj days the tickets are easily available @Rs. 25,000 to 30,000 per passenger to and fro journey”.
Slamming the Saudi airline, he said it over charge the Indian Government by quoting inflated rates and even then do not perform.
If the Haj is a regular phenomenon, then why GOI is not thinking in terms of permanent solutions, both in the areas of transportation as well as accommodation in Mecca and Madina, former CEO asked.
The five-member the high powered Haj Review Committee did not provide any permanent solution for travel arrangements of Hajis and looked into the other issues related to arrangements of accommodation, transport and providing logistic support at Mecca, Madina and the places involved during 5 days of Haj, he said.
He also underlined that the Indian Hajis face a lot of problems at the Moallims end who are hardly available and despite several complaints very little is being changed as far as Moallims are concerned.
On the reviving of the shipping line, the former executive officer, who had experience of more than seven years of haj arrangements, said it is not a viable option.
“If we employ the most advanced ship that would only ferry 4,000 Hajis at a time and it would take 4 to 5 days to get the destination while it would cost more than Rs 35,000 as a fare per passenger.”
There is a need of making the Haj Committee as an Authority or Autonomous Haj Corporation, which can have all powers for arrangements of Haj pilgrims in India and Saudi Arabia, Ahmad said.
However, Haj Review Committee member Kamal Farooqui said the government did not take the whole report into consideration before announcing the withdrawal of subsidy.
Criticizing the government, HCI member Ebrahim Ghulam Nabi Shaikh said we are mulling to challenge the government decision in the Supreme Court. Talking on Phone from Mumbai, he said the subsidy withdrawal decision amounts to the contempt of the Court as it had stipulated the date in 2022. By transferring the reserved quota of fourth time Haj applicants to women going to Haj without Moharam is also another injustice done by this government, he said.
It is worth mentioning that there was a reserved quota for those intending to perform Haj but did not get a chance for the three consecutive years in the draw.
Even the last year, the Haj subsidy amount was reduced from Rs 380 to 200 crores, he said and added that HCI will meet on Saturday in Mumbai to chalk out its strategy on this issue.