As the number of Muslims going for Hajj pilgrimage is increasing year by year Saudi government has undertaken extensive arrangements to provide better facilities to the Hajj pilgrims but the Hajj pilgrims who aspire for the pilgrimage face lot of hardship back home especially Indian Hajj aspirants face lot of difficulties right from drawing of lots to various stages of Hajj travel.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) convened a meeting of Muslim MPs to resolve these kinds of complaints and provide better facilities to the Hajis. The meeting sought suggestions from the Muslim MPs to improve Hajj journey. The focus of the discussion was improvement of Hajj journey, providing accommodation to Hajj pilgrims in Makkah, proper guidance during Hajj rituals, responsibilities of Hajj volunteers and focus on providing maximum quota for Hajj aspirants.
But most of the Muslim MPs stressed on withdrawal of the subsidy on Hajj travel. The issue of subsidy was also raised by RLD’s Rajya Sabha MP besides BJP and other party members. While the fact is that the ruling party saves its Muslim vote bank in the name of subsidy. Though the subsidy is of no help to the aspirants directly, it only benefits Air India while in other countries the hajj aspirants perform their pilgrimage without a subsidy even as the flight journey is convenient.
In India by announcing subsidy for the Hajj aspirants, the government has unnecessarily caused the other parties and people to worry. They point out that government is providing crores of rupees of Hajj subsidy to Muslims every year hence subsidy should be provided to the followers of other religions too. As for the subsidy given to Indian Hajj aspirants by the government, it is a different subject. But in MEA meeting Muslim members of parliament laid emphasis only to this point and the remaining issues took a back seat. Muslim MPs should have strongly advocated for concrete arrangements by the Indian government to resolve the problems faced by the Hajj pilgrims every year. And taking best advantage of the opportunity a permanent solution should have drawn for Indian aspirants who face travel and accommodation inconveniences in Makkah and Madina every year.
There is also no adequate arrangement in rubat by India. Following the extension project of Haram Sharif, Hajj pilgrims are provided accommodation 15 kilometer away from Kabatullah due to which visiting Kabatullah, performing prayers and circumambulation (tawaf) have become uphill task for the elderly pilgrims. The services of mualimeen and khadim ul Hujjaj seem nothing but mere lip services. The general complaint of most of the Hajj pilgrims who return after performing the Hajj is that there is no such thing as Khadimul Hujjaj. This subject had been emphasized in MEA meeting but no solution was drawn.
There are no two opinions that government of India and central and state Hajj committees try to provide maximum facilities to Hajj aspirants every year. In so far as the issues related to drawing of lots, departure and arrival of flights, loss of luggage, and difficulty in getting ab-e-zamzam, it can be arranged to settle the complaints taking past experiences into consideration. Besides State Hajj committees, some voluntary organisations and general Muslims too regard themselves as privileged to take the responsibility of Hajj arrangements. Since the first flight arrangement was made for Hajj in Hyderabad it was tried by every corner to provide convenience to Hajj aspirants later on the enthusiasm cooled down considerably.
Every one complained and also praised the arrangements made by Hajj committee but in general, complaints are mostly related to issuance and filling up of Hajj forms, obtaining passports, distribution of quota for city and districts in the matter of drawing of lots. It is the responsibility of MEA to direct concerned authorities to focus their attention towards those issues. As far as the question of obtaining international passport is concerned most of the Hajj aspirants are not fully acknowledged with the matters regarding this. In these circumstances Hajj committee authorities should set up a special cell as it had been done in the past when issuance of passport was done in the Hajj committee premises itself this procedure was completed in the specific days every year. As for the quota of Hajj aspirants it is the responsibility of Indian government to seek quota from Saudi ministry of Hajj, proportionate to Muslim population of the country. But either it is the increased quota or the present quota attention should be given to corruption and irregularities while shifting the quota from the states in which the number of Hajj aspirants is less than the quota, to the states where the number of hajj aspirants are more. As the unpleasantness created in the Holy pilgrimage due to irregularities of middlemen is not at all worthy of Holy pilgrimage. Similarly complaints of corruption and irregularities in allotment of accommodation are also received. To pay attention to this is the job of Indian government and authorities of embassy.
Of late there is an increase in monopolists’ activities in the affairs of religion too. The intervention of monopolists has increased in Hajj arrangements also due to which Hajj aspirants face hardships during the journey. It would have been better if the ministry of external affairs took the holy aspect of the Hajj pilgrimage into consideration and arranged for better facilities for the pilgrims.