AMN /Malappuram
The Centre decision to withdraw subsidy for Haj pilgrimage evoked mixed response in Kerala. The state Govt , state Haj panel and majority of Muslim organisations have registered protest against the haste of union Govt in the issue as the subsidy was anyhow going to be stopped completely by 2023 as per an earlier Supreme Court order.
“The union Govt acted in a haste that may harm the secular nature of our country. While the current paltry subsidy amount of `10,000 was going to be stopped within five years, withdrawing this in haste may create a feeling of targeting minorities, especially Muslims. People cannot be blamed if they take this as an anti-secular move by the central Govt ,” said minister in charge of Haj in the state Dr. K.T. Jaleel.
Kerala State Haj Committee is neither ready to welcome the move nor protest against it.“There is no place for protests in raising this issue as Haj is mandatory only for those who have sufficient means to undertake the pilgrimage,” said the Haj panel chairman Thodiyur Muhammed Kunhi Musliyar.
“This should be considered as an assault against the secularism. Haj subsidy is a benefit of secularism like all other subsidies for various pilgrimages. Though it was not a right, we have to protest against the way by which the union Govt has acted to stop it by superseding the Supreme Court order to do away with the subsidy completely in phases by 2023,” he said.