Hajj pilgrimage to Saudia Arabia is an annual event across the world and will continue to be so. The importance of its incumbency can be judged from the religious directive making it obligatory on the part of all Muslims, who according to the Holy book of the Quran and the Ahadith (sayings of Prophet PBUH.) qualify for Hajj to perform it at least once in life time. So no true Muslim will like to be a non-performer save he has unfavourable health, financial and homely/family conditions prevalent at the time of Hajj season. This time a record number of 1.75 lakh Muslims will undertake pilgrimage including 9773 selected out of 32332 applicants including 1959 falling under reserve category ‘A’ being above 70 years of age from J&K. As reported pilgrims from India were provided by government hajj subsidy in air fares from some past. In its judgment in 2012 the Supreme Court directed the government to do away with the element of subsidy, if any, gradually to end it by 2022. However, since recent past this annual event, like other things, has persisted to be a matter of concern for the J&K pilgrims who complained of being charged higher rates of air fare than others. People/pilgrims in the know of things believed that there was no Hajj subsidy and the government was actually calculating / disclosing above-cost price figures. The above–cost was portrayed as hajj subsidy which was all notional.
Indian currency is more powerful than its neighboring countries of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan in relation to Saudia Riyal with exchange value of about Rs.17:1. The pilgrims of these countries are usually provided accommodation almost side by side to the Indians in Madina, Makkah and Minah. On experience through interaction and observation on spot it was found that pilgrims of these weak currency countries pay less and enjoy better accommodation/facilities than Indians. Similarly along with the Indian Hajj Mission is the medical contingent comprising of doctors, para-medicos and medicines to render free consultation and medicines to the Indian pilgrims during the hajj season. Here too it is reported that medicines supplied to the pilgrims are sub-standard as these did not fructify well when administered to the requirements forcing many pilgrims to resort to other alternatives which prove better.
With a total of 21 embarkation points of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Channai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Cochin, Indore, Srinagar, Bhopal, Guwahati, Managaluru, Aurangabad , Varanasi, Jaipur, Nagpur, Ranchi, Gaya, Hyderabad and Goa, the aspirants have been provided an option of flying from the 10 additional points with Delhi for Srinagarites as an economical option. Hajj Committee of India Chairman Mr. Mehboob Ali Kaisar has told INAS that in any case the withdrawal of subsidy will not affect the air fare from major cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru but fare from smaller embarkation points such as Srinagar and Gaya may go up. However, people from these states may embark from any other place from where fares are low, such as Mumbai, Delhi or Ahmedabad. This statement is taken as an another crude joke played on pilgrims as they are not to travel free to these places from the places of their original embarkation points which would economise their time and money. On the basis of percentage of Muslims, J&K state has been allocated 6,163 hajj seats as the basic hajj quota. Besides, 3,610 seats have been allotted as special quota and from under the quota states making an aggregate of 9,773 seats. Taking 29 states, seven union territories any considerable number for capturing country level quota of 1,75,000 slots, Srinagar by virtue of 9,773 seats should have been one of the major embarkation points/cities to remain unaffected sans any increase in air fares after withdrawal of subsidy.
Factually in 2014 the government of J & K and the pilgrims concerned pointed out the disparity in air fares to Mtr. Sushma Swaraj- the minister for external affairs. The honourable minister , who was shown low figures of air fares of other states, agreed to this and expressed her acceptance to look into the matter favourably. But no results surfaced till now (2018) when the government preponed the implementation of phasing out the subsidy by four years and scraped it altogether from 2018 by dint of which J&K pilgrims will have to pay between Rs.45,000- Rs.50,000/ extra per head. This unexpected abrupt tremendous increase in costs is sure to disrupt the schedule of so many selected pilgrims to make up for finalization as no such magnitude of increase was named by the government right from the day of inviting applications for hajj 2018. In 2017 Hajj Committee of India charged Rs.2,00,000/ for hajj with ordinary accommodation (Azizia) and Rs.2,34,000/ for deluxe accommodation (Green) which is closer to the Haram in Makkah. It is said that given due weightage to the empty return sorties while ferrying pilgrims to & fro between Suadia Arabia and the various embarkation points visa-a-vis other overseas carriers charges the fares appeared to be much higher than the actual.
Muslim pilgrims do not oppose the government’s action of providing subsidy/grants for non-muslim pilgrimage events though in contravention of Article 27 of the Constitution which reads, ” No person shall be compelled to pay taxes, proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or a religious denomination.” It is the government who is constitutionally, legally and morally bound to stop violations to the constitution. The largest minority cannot but aspire only that now the rut of the subsidy has been ploughed, the event should be demonopolised from Air India, tenders invited from all the interested airlines, perfect competition promoted so that competitiveness & genuineness of rates is satisfied to the intending pilgrims as is done by government/ private concerns while acquiring stores and services. It is prayed and hoped that government will not increase the rates arbitrarily and disprove the apprehensions that it is going to hike the air fares/hajj costs in the guise of withdrawal of hajj subsidy.
(The author is a former Sr. Audit Officer working as Consultant in the AG’s Office Srinagar.)