Source: www.livemint.com
BANGALORE/MUMBAI/HYDERABAD, INDIA, June 18, 2009: In a country proud to be secular, there is increasing debate about government subsidization of religious pilgrimages.
Karnataka’s Bharatiya Janata Party government proposes to set aside US$210,000 to subsidize pilgrimages for Hindus. In Andhra Pradesh, the Congress party-led government is subsidizing the cost of travel for Christians visiting Jerusalem. Last year the Union government spent an estimated US$14 million on the Haj subsidy for Muslims to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, and also subsidized a part of the cost of the annual Hindu pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet.
At the heart of the debate is what it means to be a secular state–should the government be involved in all religions equally or in none at all in a country where Hindus comprise about 80% of the population, Muslims around 13% and Christians 3%?
Rama Jois, former chief justice of the Karnataka high court and author of a special report on government presence in temples and temple trusts, says the idea of a secular government subsidizing religious travel is a dangerous one. “Although it is not unconstitutional for a secular state to subsidize religious travel for citizens, it must be done equally for all. But then the question is about what is equal.”