India, April 16 -- An RTI reply has revealed that for over two decades, the Government of India provided airfare subsidies exclusively to Muslim pilgrims travelling for Haj, with no comparable subsidy ever extended to the Hindu majority for their religious pilgrimages. The subsidy, which began in the 1990s, was officially discontinued in 2018.

Maharashtra-based RTI activist Prafful P Sarda had sought information from the Haj Committee of India and the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The reply indicates that from 1994 to 2017, the government incurred thousands of crores in the guise of Haj subsidy, reaching a high of Rs 895 crore in 2008. Even in its last year (2017), the subsidy was Rs 200 crore (BE).

This concession was extended only to pi...