fare is higher than competing airlines' ordinary fare. However, the government has continued offering the Haj subsidy despite protests from the Muslim community at large. Syed Shahabuddin claims that Air India's rising costs for travel, and the consequent increases in the Government of India's subsidy, have resulted partly from differences in foreign exchange rates beyond the airline's control. He suggests charter fares should be set at two-thirds of regular IATA fares, but points out that the Haj has higher costs than other charters because two empty flights are required to return the aircraft to India and to position the aircraft in Arabia for the pilgrims' return journey. Shahabuddin maintains that the subsidy ought to be phased out because Hindus view the subsidy as preferential treatment of India's Muslim minority. one of India's most Renowned Islamic Scholars, Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan states that,"Muslims, in general, are not in favour of the Hajj subsidy. We consider the subsidy as a subsidy to Air India and not to the Muslim community." Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid mosque, said a decade was far too long for the subsidy to be phased out. "It should be done away with within a year," he told reporters. Salman Khurshid, minister for minority affairs (2009 to 2012), expressed no surprise about the court's decision, telling reporters that discussions to "roll back the Haj subsidy" had been underway for four years. Asaduddin Owaisi, a member of parliament from the city of Hyderabad said, this amount of subsidy is to simply being a subsidy for Air India. Ticket prices would be far lower, he said yesterday, if Air India's monopoly were broken and pilgrims simply bought their own, unsubsidised tickets on other airlines. Other Muslim leaders have argued that the Haj subsidy is "un-Islamic" and that Haj money should be invested in education and health instead. Maulana Mahmood A. Madani, a member of the Rajya Sabha and general secretary of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, declared that the Haj subsidy is a technical violation of Islamic Sharia, since the Koran declares that Haj should be performed by Muslims using their own resources. Influential Muslim lobbies in India have regularly insisted that the Hajj subsidy should be phased out as it is un-Islamic. Praveen Togadia of Vishwa Hindu Parishad has argued that the government sponsored Haj subsidy is provided from taxes of Hindus to pay for Muslim religious pilgrimages,