By TCN Special Correspondent,
New Delhi: The Haj subsidy issue dominated the deliberations at the 28th All India Annual Conference for Haj-2012 here on Tuesday, with most of the Muslim MPs and state Haj Committee chairmen demanding that the Haj subsidy be allowed to continue in the present form. Uttar Pradesh Haj committee chairman and State Urban Development Minister Azam Khan even went to the extent that the central government, if needed, be pressurized to bring a law to neutralise the Supreme Court order that has directed to withdraw subsidy in phases in the next 10 years.
Muslim MPs line up to support Haj subsidy
Participating in the deliberations, Vellore Lok Sabha MP Abdul Rahman vehemently opposed any effort to discontinue the subsidy on Haj. Stating that it was not a subsidy in the real sense of the word, Rahman said that in any scheme involving subsidy, the government paid a part of the expenses and the rest was borne by the beneficiary. But in case of Haj, it was a rebate on airfare and it did not amount to a subsidy and hence, it should be allowed to continue in its present shape.
Stating that an unnecessary controversy had been created over the issue because of lack of understanding of the subject among the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) as also some of the Muslim groups resulting into some people being apologetic about the issue and demanding its phasing out, Rahman asked the Haj Committee of India (HCI) chairperson Mohsina Kidwai to take up the matter with the relevant authorities in the central government and ensure that the subsidy to what he described as concession in air ticket continued for Haj pilgrims.
Muslim League MP from Ponnani ET Muhammed Basheer suggested the HCI and MEA to hold meeting with Ulema from different parts of the country over the Haj subsidy and submit a memorandum to the central government to ensure that Haj subsidy was not done away with. He also demanded appointment of adequate number of Malayali-knowing staff in Consulate General of India’s office at Jeddah as Malayalis were the single largest group of Indians working in Saudi Arabia.
Stating that some interested groups with the central and state governments were spreading lies that Haj pilgrims were provided huge subsidy, Uttar Pradesh Haj committee chairman and State Urban Development Minister Azam Khan said that `Haj subsidy’ was just a peanut compared to the huge expenses running into thousands of crores of rupees made by the central and various state governments on religious functions and fairs of other religious groups in India.
“Muslims are being insulted by deliberately highlighting the non-issue of Haj subsidy’’, Khan complained. Strongly criticizing External Affairs Minister S M Krishna not attending the deliberations and leaving the venue soon after inaugurating the function, Khan known for his emotionalism, said that Krishna visibly seemed to be uncomfortable in the company of those in the Haj conference either owing to some pressure or because he did not like the faces of those attending the programme.
Ex-MP Syed Shahabuddin demands global bidding to bring down airfare
Former MP Syed Shahabuddin said that the real obstacle to inviting global tender for Haj traffic was provisions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It provided that Haj traffic will be shared equally on a 50:50 basis between KSA and the Indian government for pilgrims going for Haj through HCI and hence, global tender could not be invited.
According to Shahabuddin, it resulted in increase of air fares because intending Hajis were left to only Saudi Airlines and Indian airlines. He wanted the central government to take up the matter with the KSA and ensure changes in the Haj traffic provisions to enable international bidding so as to bring down the air charges and make Haj more comfortable and economic for Indian Muslims.
Regarding arguments of the MEA (Haj Cell) that the airlines charged higher fare from Haj pilgrims because the special Haj flights bring the aircraft empty to Indian embarkation points to carry the pilgrims to Jeddah/Madinah in phase I and similarly, in phase-II or the return phase, they carry the pilgrims from Jeddah/Madinah to Indian airports but return to Jeddah/Madinah empty, Shahabuddin said that all international air flights, according to IATA report, operated at just 30 per cent of their carrying capacity. But 100 per cents seats were occupied in all the Haj flights in phase I and Phase II, meaning that Haj flights operated at more than 50 per cent of flight’s capacity. So, when non-Haj flights charged lower air fare when hardly 30 per cent of their seats were full, why should Haj pilgrims be charged double fare when the occupancy rate of seats in Haj flights was above 50 per cent. He wanted HCI officials to take up the matter with airlines in KSA as also India to ensure that Haj pilgrims were not charged more.
According to HCI information, Saudi Airlines charged air fare of Rs. 52,500 for to and fro journey per pilgrim in Haj 2011. According to HCI, pilgrims were charged only Rs.16,000 and remaining Rs. 36,500 per pilgrim was paid by the government that this was called “subsidy”.