Opposition Congress Party has welcomed the scrapping of Haj subsidy announced by the BJP-led Centre a couple of days following an instruction in this regard issued by the Supreme Court of India. At the same time, the Party wondered why the funds meant for the subsidy can’t be used for minorities’ welfare and educating them.

Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi made a formal announcement recently stating that the financial subsidy to cover the air-fare of Haj pilgrims for trip to the Mecca was being scrapped with immediate effect based on instructions in this regard issued by the apex Court some time back. The funds accruing from this would be spent for the overall development of the country, he had said.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha and senior Congress leader, was questioned by newsmen yesterday about the Centre’s move to scrap the Haj subsidy. “It is an action which is a corollary to the 2012 instructions of the Supreme Court of India when the Court had said that the subsidy ought to be reduced in phases and should have been scrapped by 2022,” Azad said.

Azad referred to the above-said verdict and said that the apex Court had directed the Centre to ensure that the funds accruing from the scrapping of subsidy should be spent for minorities’ welfare and in imparting education to them. “It remains to be seen what the BJP-led Centre does with this,” he said and added that Haj subsidy was more beneficial to airlines companies than it benefitted Islamic Haj pilgrims.