The Congress today said that by abolishing the Haj subsidy, the Centre was only implementing the Supreme Court's decision, and hoped that the Modi government would utilise the funds for the education and development of the disempowered among the minorities. Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today announced that there will be no subsidy for Haj pilgrimage from this year. Congress's senior spokesperson Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government had ended the subsidy four years before it was supposed to end as per Supreme Court directives. He also said that the subsidy was not meant to appease Muslims and claimed that it benefited the airlines which inflated flight charges by almost double during the pilgrimage. "Since the government has wound up this subsidy almost four years before the date prescribed by the Supreme Court, I don't think we have any issue. "We don't want to make this an issue at all. Let the government do whatever they want to do. I just wanted to make it clear, the Hajis were not the beneficiaries, it was the airlines who were the beneficiaries.
If they had some favour on somebody, it was on the airlines, not on the Hajis," he told reporters. Asked if the Congress welcomed the decision of abolishing the subsidy, he said, "We welcome the Supreme Court judgement, not the government." The government is only implementing the Supreme Court decision, Azad said. It was not the government's decision, but of the Supreme Court bench of Justice Aftab Alam, he said. Azad, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said just as the government has implemented the first part of the Supreme Court judgement, it should implement the second part too. "The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam had in 2012 decided that within 10 years, by 2022 the Haj subsidy should be abolished gradually. Whatever money is being saved by the government, the government should use that money for the welfare of the minorities and particularly for the education of the minorities' children," he said. Reacting to the development, Congress Communications in- charge Randeep Surjewala said the Congress sincerely hopes that the Modi government will honour the Supreme Court direction and utilise the money saved for the disempowered, including modern education to children, especially young girls from minority community. Surjewala also hoped that the government would provide special incentives for higher education, including in medical, engineering and other services, besides ensuring skill development of the children of the minority community. He also urged the government to make provisions for helping the destitute women among the minorities, including those who have been widowed, abandoned or divorced, and make other provisions for the social development of the minority community. Azad also said that the normal fare from any part of the country to Jeddah is far less than what the airlines were charging. "The actual beneficiaries are the airlines... Let them not say that the government was pleasing anybody, the government was pleasing the airlines, not the Hajis," he said. The senior Congress leader said the normal airfare from any part of the country to Jeddah is between Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000, whereas the airlines charged about Rs 70,000 to 75,000 during the Haj period. He said the Haj subsidy was gradually reduced and that started during the Congress government. "It must be half of Rs 650 crore in 2012 than now," he said. Azad said the impression being given was that the Haj pilgrims are being benefited and the government is doing something extraordinary. "It is not like that. There was no appeasement," he said.
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