Haj subsidy

The Haj subsidy is a subsidy given to Indian Muslim Hajj pilgrims by the Government of India in form of discounted Air fares on Indian Government owned Air India. The program has its origins in British colonial era. In post-colonial era, the Government of India expanded the program in 1959 with the Hajj Act. The subsidy initially applied to Indian Muslim pilgrims traveling for religious reasons to Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan. Haj subsidy started in 1954, as an idea initiated by the then government, with flights between Mumbai and Jeddah. Additional flight legs were added over the years, and since 1984, all Haj traffic has been shared by Air India and Saudia, the national carriers of India and Saudi Arabia.The monopoly of these airlines has proven the most contentious point of the subsidy with some Muslims objecting to it by claiming that the real beneficiary is Air India as the subsidy is actually a discount on an overpriced air fare. There have also been requests by Muslims to withdraw subsidy including some Muslim Parliament members as it is against Islam even it was beneficial.

Since 2000, over 1.5 million Muslims have used the subsidy; since 2008, over 120,000 Indian Muslim every year make use of the subsidy. The Hajj subsidy includes an airfare subsidy as well as assistance to Muslim pilgrims for domestic travel to reach specially designed Haj departure airport terminals, meal, medical care and lodging assistance provided by the Government of India. The average airfare subsidy was about ₹73,526 (US$1,100) per Muslim pilgrim in 2008; while the average non-airfare financial assistance was ₹2,697 (US$42) per pilgrim. The total subsidy provided by the Government of India was US$1,815 per Muslim pilgrim in 2008.

In May 2012, the Supreme Court of India ordered the government to end the practice by 2022. "We direct the Central government to progressively reduce the amount of subsidy so as to completely eliminate it within a period of 10 years from today," said a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana P Desai. "The subsidy money may be more profitably used for uplift of the community in education and other indices of social development," said Justice Alam, who wrote the order. The court said it has no authority to speak on the minority community's behalf and that it would be presumptuous to tell the Muslims what was a good or bad religious practice even though it cited Quran to say that haj pilgrimage was mandatory only for those who could afford the expenses for traveling, food and accommodation. Some Indian Islamic scholars and Muslim politicians want immediate removal of so-called subsidy as it is used by Hindu right winger groups and Politicians to target Indian Muslim by polarizing Hindu voters as its both non-existent and against Islam.

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