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Muslim leaders cautious to apex court ruling
on Haj
Tuesday May 08, 2012 03:56:22 PM,
IANS
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Lucknow: Muslim
community leaders and prominent clerics in Uttar Pradesh Tuesday
reacted cautiously to the Supreme Court ruling directing the
government to eliminate in the next 10 years the subsidy being
given to the Hajis - pilgrims to the holy Makkah.
While most of them were circumspect on how the subsidy would be
"phased out" as prescribed by the apex court in a time frame of
ten years, clerics said they had no objection to the decision as
they were themselves demanding for a long time that the subsidy by
the union government be withdrawn.
Talking to IANS, Sunni community leader Haji Khalid Rasheed said
they had in the past asked the government to withdraw the subsidy
but with some riders. "We have asked the government to axe the
subsidy but to alternately follow it up with open tendering of air
tickets," he said.
If the air tickets, which are priced somewhere between Rs.1.2
lakh-1.5 lakh every year during the Haj period, are released
through open tendering (right now only Air India has the ticketing
monopoly), the ticket prices would come down heavily, Rashid said.
This, he added, would be a bigger relief than the subsidy actuals.
Shia Cleric Kalbe Jawwad said the apex court was "not within its
rights to make laws" as it was a custodian of laws, meant to
oversee implementation of laws made by parliament. "We have to
study the ruling and to see that the ruling does not hit the poor
Muslims who would be deprived of their holy Haj if the subsidy is
withdrawn," he told IANS.
Wasim Ahmad, state minister for basic education, said he was
"feeling let down" by the Supreme Court ruling and said this would
deprive the poor Muslims of their Haj pilgrimage. "What can I say
on this, it is sad... but then it is that way that the SC works,"
he mused.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam Tuesday
directed the government to eliminate the subsidy for Haj pilgrims
in the next 10 years. The court also directed that the goodwill
delegation sent by the government every year to Mecca should now
be scaled down to two from its present strength of 30.
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