Unfair subsidy ( a letter) - The Times of India

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Sir,-It is disgraceful that the Indian State, which according to
our Constitution is supposed to be secular, should spend crores of
rupees subsidising a purely religious exercise like the Haj
pilgrimage. The number of Muslims helped by "secular" parties has
been going up as follows: 25,685 in 1994, 30,503 in 1995, 50,346 in
1996 and 53,826 in 1997.

The government's subsidy per pilgrim is over rupees Rs 8,300 and
the amount spent by the government to subsidise the Haj has gone up
from Rs 24.69 crore in 1994 to Rs 42 crore in 1996. If the
government really believes in the slogans that it touts like 'Sarva
Dharma Samabhava', it should stop this politically motivated
practice of funding one religious community. In any case, a
so-called secular country has no business spending public money on
subsidising pilgrimages.

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