(This story originally appeared in on Mar 25, 2017)

NEW DELHI: It is the poor who deserve government subsidy for Haj pilgrimage, not the affluent Muslims, UP’s muslim waqf and haj minister Mohsin Raza has said. He added that it would be his priority to ensure ‘deserving Muslims’ get Haj subsidy The Centre provides subsidy to Muslim pilgrims to Mecca annually by reducing airfares in official carrier Air India and has a quota for different states. The Centre this year had increased the Haj quota to 1.7 lakh pilgrims, including 1.25 lakh who go on subsidy through Haj Committee of India. UP’s Haj quota has been increased by 8,000 to 29,000-odd seats.“We will only let jayaz (deserving) persons, who don’t have means to go on their own, to go. If a person is a multi-millionaire he should not make the pilgrimage on government money. We are reviewing the rules and will announce a decision soon,” Raza, the minister for state, told ET.“In the previous dispensation ( Azam Khan was the haj minister), there was no transparency on who was selected for Haj subsidy. When I visited the haj committee office yesterday, pilgrims coming there had no idea that the Haj quota had been increased for UP.Officials had not informed them of this step by the Modi government. We will bring transparency and honesty to the system under our government. It should not be like I have become a minister and I let my family and relatives avail the subsidy and go on Haj,” Raza said. He said that he would appeal to rich Muslims to give up Haj subsidy and go through private operators, helping the poor who “can only dream” of the pilgrimage.A former Ranji-level cricketer and BJP spokesperson, Raza said many people had given up their LPG subsidy for the poor on the appeal of the PM and he would appeal to the rich Muslims to do the same in case of haj subsidy.Raza has also got the portfolio of IT & Electronics as a Minister of State. “It is not that I was typecast and given just the haj department, since I was a Muslim. I have also been given the IT & Electronics department.This shows that if one has the ability and leadership trusts you, it will give you any department. There is no discrimination due to religion or caste…this is sabka saath, sabka vikaas,” he said.Raza lost his cool at the haj office on Thursday when he spotted Azam Khan’s pictures still on the walls and asked officials to realise a new government was now in place. “The situation was pathetic. There was no drinking water or place to sit for pilgrims who had travelled hundreds of km to apply.There was no one to welcome them or guide them. This at a place where a person comes for the biggest pilgrimage of his or her lives,” Raza said. He said there were cases of affluent Muslims utilising the subsidy multiple times. “How can people go repeatedly for Haj on subsidy? Haj is not a picnic,” he said.