Minority Affairs Minister Irani hit out at the Congress-led UPA government, saying the Haj discretionary quota was introduced during its period.
Inching towards PM Narendra Modi’s resolve to end 'VIP culture’, the Centre has decided to do away with the discretionary Haj quota that was available to people in top constitutional posts and the minority affairs ministry, Union minister Smriti Irani said on Wednesday
Minority Affairs Minister Irani hit out at the Congress-led UPA government, saying the discretionary quota was introduced during its period.
In an interview with TV9 Bharat, Irani said, "A decision has been taken (to end discretionary quota in Haj). Prime Minister Modi put forward his resolve to end VIP culture on the very first day of his term. VIP culture was put in place with respect to Haj during the UPA rule under which there was a special quota allocated to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Haj Committee and all those in top constitutional posts.”
"The President, Vice President, me (have all dedicated it to the people). The Haj Committee was urged to end this quota and all the Haj committees in various states supported this. This VIP culture has been ended in the Haj process," Irani said.
Going by Islam ritually, every year, thousands of Muslim pilgrims throng to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. It is considered to be a mandatory religious duty for all adult Muslims physically and financially capable of doing so, and the same is done over five to six days during Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar.
Due to an influx of pilgrims, it becomes challenging for the Saudi Arabian government to provide safe hospitality services for millions of pilgrims. Hence, to balance out the situation, the country allocates countrywide quotas worldwide to cap the number of pilgrims visiting Mecca for a brief time. These quotas are distributed based on the Muslim population of a country.
Further, in India, the quotas are divided into two proportions and distributed by the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Haj Committee of India (HCoI) to various stakeholders.
While 70 per cent of these seats are reserved with HCOI, only 30 per cent are given to private stakeholders who are free to levy any charges for conducting the Haj. Out of the total number of slots with the HCoI, 500 are held under the “Government discretionary quota” whereas the rest are distributed to different states on the basis of their Muslim population, according to the 2018-22 policy.
Among these 500, 200 are held by government officials while the other 300 lies with the committee. Among the 200 slots, 100 lies with the Presiden 75 with the Prime Minister, 75 with the Vice President and 50 with the Minister of Minority Affairs.
And with the recent announcement, this quota has been abolished and the seats have been added back to the general category.
The issue around Haj quota also surfaced in 2011 when Supreme Court noted that it was a “bad religious practice”, resulting in the number of seats being reduced to 500 from 5,000 for the HCoI in 2012.
According to a report by the Indian Express, the apex court had also directed the government to phase out the Haj subsidy within a period of 10 years, saying the sum can be more profitably used for the social and educational development of the Muslim community. The direction came with the same judgment of 2012.