The MYTH of Hajj Subsidy.............. Recently the Supreme Court of India upheld the constitutional validity of extending subsidy on air fare to Hajj Pilgrims. This year Rs.280 crore was reportedly spent by the Government of India to subsidize the air fare of one lakh pilgrims. This amounts to a subsidy of Rs.28000/- per pilgrim. The subsidy provided to the pilgrims has understandably generated a lot of debate within political and social circles in India. While the right wing political parties, when not in power, consider it as an unnecessary appeasement of Indian Muslims, the governments formed by any party have always seen it as a necessary expenditure to help Muslims perform their religious obligation of Hajj. I decided to do some quick calculation to check the veracity of the tall claims made by the GoI and the Hajj Committee regarding the subsidy amount. The results were quite shocking. I checked with one of the service providers ---‘makemytrip’--- and it showed up the Saudi Airline’s fare of a little over Rs.26000/- for a return Delhi-Jeddah ticket with a gap of around forty days. It was amazing to find that the total airfare of Rs.26,000 for a hajj pilgrimage is even lower than the subsidy amount of Rs.28,000 which is allegedly paid by GoI to airlines to subsidise the “high cost” of the air tickets. The ONLY subsidy that the GoI provides is for airfare and NO other facility. A muslim Hajji typically ends up spending approx 1.25 lakhs, over and above this so-called Hajj subsidy. More importantly, the unabashed duplicity of the government and its arms is exposed every year by private operators who offer similar Hajj Tours at an economical cost of Rs.1.00 Lac which includes providing food to the pilgrims as well. The private operators will obviously still be making profits.
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 07:08:38 +0000
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