Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir said by accepting the Sangh parivar backed BJP move to withdraw the Haj subsidy , the true colours of MIM chief Assaduddin Owaisi’s has come to light.
Urging the state and central governments to not endorse the BJP governments move on Haj subsidy the Leader of Opposition in the Telangana legislative council demanded the MIM chief to withdraw his statement and extend unconditional apologies to the Muslim community .
He said today that the MIM chief whose income has spiralled from just Rs. 8 lakhs in 2004 to Rs.35lakhs in 2008 and Rs.4.5crore in 2014 may well not require the Haj subsidy . But the Haj subsidy granted by the British in 1932 is a boon to poor Muslims and retired officials for one Haj pilgrimage in their life time.
On the other hand the AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday asked the government to abolish the subsidy for the Haj pilgrimage.
Claiming that the “Haj subsidy of Rs 690 crore is given to Air India and not the pilgrims, the MP said that the money is going to Air India — which is a sick airline — in the name of subsidy.
In a tweet on his micro-blogging site, Mr Owaisi said Rs 690 crore, which is being used for the Haj subsidy, must be used for the education of Muslim girls.
Mr Owaisi has been demanding the abolition of the subsidy for the Haj pilgrims as he felt that the Muslims don’t need subsidy for their sacred pilgrimage.
At the same time the government has formed a high-level panel to look into the Haj subsidy issue in light of a 2012 Supreme Court order on gradually reducing and abolishing subsidy given to pilgrims by 2022, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said here on Friday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event, the Minister of State for Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) said the panel, inter alia, is expected to figure out if the pilgrims can travel to Saudi Arabia paying less or equally if there is no subsidy.
“Questions and issues about Haj subsidy have been raised from time to time. We have formed a high-level committee to study in detail different aspects related to the subsidy,” Naqvi said.
