Haj hijacked

India sends a high number of hajis -- in the the top 10 country list. Until early 1960s when Bombay was connected to Jeddah by air, most pilgrims went by boat, run by the Mogul Line Ltd, a British-controlled company. In 1975, Shipping Corporation of India, a government undertaking, took over the Mogul Line. The oil crisis of the early 1970s made the cost of sea fare higher than airfare, so ships were abandoned in 1975, the Government of India gave Air India the monopoly over Haj travel.
The oil crisis further escalated the cost of airfare forcing the government to introduce "Haj subsidy" to Air India and not individual pious pilgrims. Who exactly pays the Haj subsidy to Air India, the ministry of external affairs or the ministry of civil aviation? What is the exact amount? Does it change annually?
These are matters of detail but irrelevant to the principle that the state should not subsidise religious pilgrimage of any kind to any place, irrespective of religion. The canard that state is paying Muslims to perform Haj has done immense damage to an already demonised community.
Senior Muslim leader Syed Shahabuddin and the young Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi have both expressed the will of the community to terminate the subsidy. The impediment to the abolition lies squarely in Air India, a state corporation. Just as we have rightly abolished privy purses of maharajas, why was the Air India maharaja made an exception?
The Central Haj Committee should invite bids from various Indian airlines for Haj group travel and designate the lowest bidder as the official carrier. This will end Air India's monopoly and end the lie that the state subsidises Haj.
10/09/09 Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Air India - International Sep 2009, Foreign Sep 2009, NACIL Sep 2009