VHP demands GOI to refrain from siphoning Hindu tax-payers’ money to subsidise annual Haj and Bethlehem pilgrimages!

HON’BLE HOME MINISTER OF BHARAT

SHRI SHIVRAJ VISHWANATH PATIL

Room # 104, North Block,

New Delhi-110 001

Fax-23092979-O, 23794833-H

E-Mail: [email protected]

 

Aadaraniiya Grih Mantri Ji,

 

Subject: We demand from your Government to refrain from siphoning Hindu tax-payers’ money to heavily subsidise annual Haj and Bethlehem pilgrimages!

 

We would like to know if Hindus would hereafter be taxed more and more every year so as to increasingly subsidise the Haj and now the Bethlehem pilgrimages! The ‘secular’ Government of Bharat has already been wounding the Hindu tax payers by spending their hard-earned money to subsidise the Haj pilgrimages to Mecca, the quota of which has been increased to 1.68 lakh for the year 2008.

 

And, now, it is the turn of the Andhra Pradesh Government to follow suit to subsidise Bethlehem & Jerusalem pilgrimages on the Haj lines. The enclosed fact sheet on the subject is eloquently self-explanatory. It says: “…(c) Each group will have a minimum of 50 and maximum of 100 pilgrims. (d) Rs. 20,000 may be granted for each pilgrim by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, on par with Muslim Haj Pilgrims. Over and above this, the expenses can be borne by the pilgrims themselves…”

 

You know, there are 52 Muslim countries and 169 Christian countries in the world whereas Bharat is the lone country for Hindus on planet earth. Absolutely none of the said Muslim and X’ian countries provides subsidy for Haj and Jerusalem pilgrimages and, obviously, none of them, and, unfortunately, not even Bharat, extends to Hindus that go on the arduous pilgrimage to Kailash-Mansarovar in Tibet-China the special rights that Muslims and X’ians are being accorded in Bharat. Even through the Government of India route (here we are not taking into account the heavy expenses the NRI & PIO Hindus have to incur to undertake this pilgrimage), each & every common Bharatiya Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrim (16 batches & 36 pilgrims in every batch) has to spend over Rs. 60,000/- from his/her own pocket (per head) to gain access even to the bare minimum terrestrial facilities (leave alone heavy air route expenses via Lhasa, etc.) to make do this arduous once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage. Instead of subsidising him/her on the Haj and Bethlehem lines, he/she is charged up front over Rs. 11,000/- (for 15 days on Bharatiya side) by the Government of India and over Rs. 30,000/- (for 12 days on Chinese side with inferior facilities and services) by the Government of China and its agencies. The rest they have to spend to obtain some other essential facilities, goods & services.

 

The Hindu does not ask for a subsidised pilgrimage. However, it does not mean that he would never ask for it on the same lines and scale as is being provided to the Muslims and X’ians put together to go on pilgrimages to Kailash-Mansarovar in Tibet-China, Hinglaj Shakti Peeth-Katasraj (Kataakshraj of Yaksha Prasna fame of Mahabharata)-Nankana Sahib-Panja Sahib in Pakistan, Shakti Peethas, Shiva Peethas, Vishnu Peethas and Buddha Peethas in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, etc. But, then, that would be a double liability on the national exchequer. But, for the virtue of this consideration on the part of Hindus, they must not be taken for a ride while on the other hand the Government goes on ever increasingly subsidising the Haj and Jerusalem pilgrimages!

 

It is, therefore, demanded that the ill-advised and appeasing conspiracy to siphon the Hindu tax-payers’ money to heavily and increasingly subsidise Haj and Jerusalem pilgrimages must be stopped forthwith, and the money should instead be used only for national reconstruction, revival and renovation of the thousands of indigenous Dharmic places, pilgrimage sites and centres dotting the whole of Bharat (e.g., the Sri Ram Vanvas route on the North-South Corridor dotted with the footprints of Bhagwan Sri Ram that underpins our national integration), socio-economic growth of the deprived sections of our population that subscribe to the geo-cultural idea of Bharat and the slogan of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.

 

A word in acknowledgment of receipt of this communication by your exalted offices would be highly appreciated!

 

Thank you!

 

Yours in the service of

Maa Bhaarati and Dharma,

Sd/-

(ASHOK SINGHAL)

President

 

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