MARGAO: The All India Haj Committee has lambasted the Congress for having ignored the problems of Haj pilgrimmes for last 60 years while announcing that the center has resolved several issues of the Muslims of India in the last 5 years of Narendra Modi’s rule as prime minister.
All India Haj Committee Vice President Shaikh Jina, Mehboob Makandar, Maulali Shaikh and others were present at the briefing. Jina said that women from India would be able to go on Haj pilgrimage without Mehram now and has thanked Modi for having facilitated the same during the Saudi visit earlier.
“Today 2000 women from India are going to make their Haj pilgrimage which they did not get earlier due to the want of mehram,” he said.
He also further announced that the center has reduced the GST on Haj air fare from 18% to 5% now which has also encouraged more to make the pilgrimage.
Jina also said that after discussion with Modi, the Saudi Prince has increased the quota for India by additional 25,000 which will now enable 2 lakh people from India to make the Haj pilgrimage. This makes India the country with the second largest quota for Haj.
Jina also announced that Goa has been made into one of the embarkation point for Haj pilgrims after the Town & Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai took up the issue with the Goan MPs and the Central Minister Mukhtar Abbas Nakhvi sanctioned the same for the State after getting 130 pilgrims from Karnataka.
Criticising the Congress, he said, “Some Congress leaders speak against BJP and call themselves a Muslim and Minority party. I want to ask them why didn’t the party take up these issues if they were a minority favoring party for last 60 years.”
