The Union cabinet has shot down the proposal to hike airfares for Haj pilgrims. The round fare to Jeddah and Medina and back will stay at Rs 12,000 per pilgrim. It had been proposed to raise the fare to Rs 16,000 in view of the steep increase of global fuel prices and an imposition of airport tax of 50 riyals (about Rs 525) per pilgrim by Saudi Arabia.
Union Minister and Cabinet spokesperson Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said the Cabinet did not agree to the fare rise “in keeping with the commitment of the United Progressive Alliance government to protect and promote the welfare of the Muslim community.” The Haj airfare has remained constant since 1994, and the overall subsidy costs the nation, on average, around Rs 350 crore each year.
The simple question is does the government move to not raise airfares make economic sense? If neighbouring Pakistan—an Islamic Republic poorer than India—can charge Pakistani Rs 38,500 (approximately Rs 24, 950) per pilgrim as airfare, and Bangladesh can charge the equivalent of $950 (Rs38,000), is there any reason, bar the political, for the secular Indian government to charge half-fare? Does it make sense to charge the same airfare on rich and poor Muslims?
On the other hand, if the BJP-led NDA could not muster the strength to tackle the issue, is it fair to pick on the Congress-led UPA?
Also read: Haj subsidy is a fact and must go eventually: Syed Shahabuddin
i am disappointed, they should have decreased the fare, if not write it off. We are a ‘secular’ after all. :)
Will there ever come a time when all Congress vote mills will refuse handouts from the government? It should be a blanket refusal including the Haj subsidy, reservations in education and employment.
The BJPwallas in Karnataka took this absurdity a step further when offering pin money to various mathas and temples. I am also reminded of the time when a former three-hundred day prime minister from Karnataka, who was at that time busy establishing an alternative matha for vokkaligas, said that he had given the Abbot of Chunchanagiri ten lakhs out of his MP purse. Was it his money to give away? I suppose he was not as secular then as he is now. His son has squandered taxpayers’ money during his janatadarshans by granting his petitioners their wishes on the spot without any inquiry to verify their conditions.
While on the topic Holenarasipur Dynasty, I wonder why the old owl’s twelve conditions under which Muddiyrappa should rule do not include a word about guaranteeing Kannada its rightful place in borderlands like Bengaluru.
In the name of secular you do any thing its acceptable. The congress should hlep poor Muslims not the one who is have hell lot of money and still gets the Huj benifits. Vote bank politics jindabad!!!
Is churumuru ready to convert this in to forum for PIL ? Let us see how many are ready to express their opinion with semantics. To start with express my Vote against subsidizing Haz pilgrimage or Kailash Pilgrimage or Nanaksabha pilgrimage or any other such destination. A secular country has no business to indulge in religion.
for what it is worth, i am game.
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i find the link and text promoted quite amusing, for the main text of the post is about secularism while the suggested reading is a classic case of droit de seigneur cloaked in the economic analysis. His critique of haj subsidies has nothing to do with egalitarian principles of secularism as we are nudged/orwelled to believe. Analysis of this type are dime a dozen and are frequently known to lapse into reverie of those 700 years of raaj and lamentations of the current loss power. Also look out for the subtle attempt at manufacturing parity between bandobast, which are events open to people of all religions, atleast theoretically, and haj subsidies which are enablers or access facilitators restricted to a single community, if not at the immigration counters at bombay then at the borders of mecca.
I am tempted to get religion in my old days. I will become a Muslim and travel to Mecca on a subsidy. I will make Bhyrappa and Chidananda Murthy happy by recoverting to Hinduism and travel to Kashmir on a subsidy. Then, with Sonia Gandhi’s blessings, I will turn Christian and visit the Vatican on a subsidy. What a wonderful thing the religious means to travel is.
Can our Hindu leaders in Karnataka prove they have read a version of the Mahabharatha and the Ramayana in their own native languages?
Can our Christian leaders in Karnataka prove they are familiar with the actual text of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.
Can our Muslim leaders in Karnataka interpret at least some part of the Suras, in translation or the original, to our satisfaction and guide us?
A similar question to all politicians who pimp religion for their own ends.
As a piligrim when you go up Yamunothri and Kedarnath you have to pay a HEFTY tax!! Even Mulims have to pay this. They may be EXEMPTED!
Is there a subsidy our government gives which an agnostic or atheist can avail of? Maybe some kind of discount on saaraayi?
AG, you must add of the socialist kind and the utopia they represented. before neo liberal MMS/PVN broke their back, two bit smugglers ruled the roost. whatever MMS did not alter the consumption levels of gold, it remains stable at about 7% of world market, but it broke the back of thugs.
people have needs and dreams, the question is whether you want to pour hot oil in their eyes to keep them awake so as not to dream or use that and channelize that for the greater good. check out randy paush’s lecture posted on churumuri.
Hehe, I find it funny that Churumuri looks at this question from an economic perspective.
The Haj subsidy does not deserve to exist. But frankly there are bigger fish to fry.
When will they make Friday the official weekly holiday?
All for the sake of votes/power……sighhhh
Galbraith had predicted about the ilk of MMS types..
They will eat from the bowl of socialism till it gets empty and then eventually welcome free market forces when government goes bankrupt.
MMS sold Bharathi to Bank of England after BoP crisis. That is when MMS underwent a metamorphosis and became messiah of free enterprise!!! Many ills of India are relic of of freewheeling of MMS types during socialist utopia.. But MMS hunted with hounds and now runs with hares to compensate for the hunt!!!
that the intellijencia morphs to/rides on expedient trends is no big revelation, the question is how many woke up from their reveries ala MMS and smelt the kaapi? some here, even in churumuri, circa ’07, who still refuse to do that much to the chagrin of ‘magalur jana.
Whatever happened to the old-fashioned way of doing Haj by foot or by sea? A kind of A la Aiyappa Swamy route? Problem solved! No?