NEW DELHI: India´s Hindu nationalist government is ending a decades-longpolicy of offering discounted air fares to Muslims embarking on the hajjpilgrimage, it announced Tuesday.
The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party has accused its opponents in theCongress party — who introduced the hajj assistance scheme in the 1950s –of trying to woo Muslim voters through handouts.
Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the government wants toassist India´s roughly 175 million Muslims without resorting to political”appeasement” along religious lines.
“Development with dignity is what we believe in,” he said in announcing thedecision to scrap the travel subsidy.
He said the cash saved from the scheme would be channelled into economicopportunities and education for Muslims, who make up about 14 percent ofIndia´s 1.25 billion people.
Every year more than 100,000 pilgrims travel from India to the holy site ofMecca in Saudi Arabia for a spiritual journey that every faithful Muslimstrives to make at least once in their lifetime.
Critics have long argued that India, a secular country, should not extendhandouts to any religious community for their faith-based celebrations.
India´s top court in 2012 said the scheme should be phased out, and that itcontravened a fundamental tenet of Islam — that only those who couldafford to make the pilgrimage do so.
But the right-wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi spendsmillions for Hindus undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar and Kumbh Mela, asacred bathing ritual that draws millions of pilgrims over four weeks.
Naqvi said 175,000 Indian Muslims would embark on hajj this year — arecord number — suggesting enthusiasm for the annual pilgrimage would notshrink without the government´s financial assistance.
Muslim leaders in India have also urged the government to abolish thetravel subsidy, saying state-run carrier Air India was the biggestbeneficiary.