The Congress on Sunday raised concerns over the hike in the airfare for Haj pilgrims, calling it an injustice and demanding the immediate withdrawal of the circular issued by the Haj Committee of India.
The opposition party's demand came after the Haj Committee of India raised the Haj airfare by Rs 10,000 per pilgrim this year, attributing it to the global rise in Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices.
The BJP-led Centre asserted that the increase has been restricted through hard negotiations.
A circular issued by the Haj Committee of India mentioned that in view of the extraordinary circumstances arising out of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, a one-time revision in the airfare for Haj 2026 has been approved by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
"The revised airfare entails an additional amount of USD 100 per pilgrim, irrespective of embarkation point, to be borne by the pilgrims. The decision has been taken in view of pressing requests from airlines for revision of base fare by more than USD 400 on account of the sharp increase in Aviation Turbine Fuel prices due to the prevailing situation in the Middle East, after due examination of facts and consultation with stakeholders," the circular stated.
Accordingly, all Haj pilgrims this year are required to deposit Rs 10,000 towards the differential airfare by May 15, it added.
In a post on X, Congress MP and general secretary Syed Naseer Hussain said that on April 28, 2026, the Ministry of Minority Affairs issued a circular demanding an additional payment from every Haj pilgrim, payable by May 15.
He claimed that this demand was made without prior notice, without consultation, and without justification commensurate with its timing.
"Pilgrims had already paid in full across multiple instalments over many months. Many of them are elderly. Many are already in Saudi Arabia to perform the Haj. The hardship they face is not only financial. It is the direct consequence of mismanagement, and it is the experience of being treated as a revenue consideration rather than as citizens entitled to basic protection and dignity," the Congress leader said.
What makes this demand particularly difficult to accept is the cost that pilgrims had already borne before this circular was issued, Hussain asserted, adding that under the current government, the cost of performing Haj has risen to levels that place this pilgrimage beyond the comfortable reach of ordinary Indian families.
"The government charges airfares that are reported to be nearly double what an individual traveller pays on the open market for the same route. The full package, when totalled, represents a sum that most families could only accumulate over years of careful saving," Hussain said.
"This is not an expenditure on luxury. It is the fulfilment of a religious obligation that families plan and save for, in many cases, over the better part of a lifetime," he pointed out.
Hussain emphasised that the government has cited fuel price increases as the basis for this additional charge, yet the government has consistently maintained that the energy sector is stable and that citizens have been insulated from external shocks.
"On what basis, then, is this burden being placed specifically on Haj pilgrims?" he asked.
"If fuel costs have not warranted a broader public burden, why are pilgrims being asked to absorb this increase at the very last moment, after having already paid in full?" the Congress leader said.
The answer lies not in global aviation pressures but in institutional failure, he alleged.
"Private operators, who carry none of the government's diplomatic leverage or collective bargaining power, offer comparable packages in the open market. This makes the government's pricing difficult to justify on any administrative or economic ground," he said.
"The surcharge is not the cause of this failure. It is its most visible symptom: the result of the absence of competitive tendering, the lack of any price-stability mechanism, and the government's failure to maintain a contingency framework capable of absorbing external cost pressures without passing them on to pilgrims without warning," Hussain said.
The UPA government recognised that regulating private operators and holding public institutions to account is not a matter of generosity but a matter of governance.
Under the UPA, private operators were regulated, institutional pricing was kept accountable, and pilgrims were not left to bear the cost of administrative failure, Hussain said.
That standard of stewardship is precisely what is absent today, he argued.
"This government has neither regulated effectively nor planned adequately. A circular issued in the final days before departure is not a policy response. It is evidence of the absence of one," he said, hitting out at the Modi government.
"We are not asking for the extraordinary. We are asking the government to act in the interest of its own citizens, to demonstrate basic competence in management, and to use the considerable diplomatic and institutional leverage it possesses to negotiate on behalf of those it is meant to serve," Hussain said.
The Congress calls for the immediate withdrawal of the April 28 circular, the full refund of the amount collected under it, and the introduction of structural reform, including mandatory competitive tendering and a Haj Price Stability Framework, before the 2027 season begins, the AICC general secretary said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, tagging videos of pilgrims hailing the arrangements by the government in Saudi Arabia while on Haj, said that such appreciation reflects the continued commitment to Haj management, ensuring every pilgrim receives timely care, support and dignity throughout the journey.
(With inputs from PTI)