Jamshaid Ashraf’s Contributions – Haj Committee
Jamshaid Ashraf was the Chairman of Haj Committee in 2006. It was a post he was unanimously re-elected for in 2008, because of the great work he did and the appreciation he received from the Muslim community for his dedication and contribution. There were 5 key points he worked hard on and brought a lot of success and progress on:
- Construction of New State Haj Bhavan:
Construction of New Haj Bhavan had been delayed for quite a while. Jamshaid dedicated resources and attention to it, pushing Mr. Nitish Kumar and the then housing minister Mr. Munazir Hassan, and made sure that the new Haj Bhavan was built, in just 1.5 years, which today stands prominently as one of the best Haj Bhavans in India, and is a landmark in Patna. As a Chairman, this was his first achievement.
The new Bihar State Haj Bhavan
- State Level Red Tape, Bureaucracy and Process:
In the previous years, because of a lot of hurdles and problems in going for Haj, the number of Hajis going through Haj Committee had dropped drastically, and people had to go through private tour operators instead. He made the legalities and red tape required much easier and streamlined, and got the officials and volunteers together to improve the actual process of going for Haj.
- Air India Monopoly Issues:
From the State level, the issues were identified and resolved. However there were still significant issues with Air India – flights were not on time, luggage was often misplaced, and they weren’t even using their own flights – they were taking old planes on hire from different airlines at cheap rates, whose air-worthiness was not to the level of carrying the load of a full flight of passengers and their luggage. Which is why often passengers would be sent on one flight, and their luggage was sent on another, leading to massive confusions and loss of luggage. So, in 2008, during the Haj Conference in Delhi, he raised the issue of the monopoly of Air India, and suggested floating a global tender. And ultimately because of his constant pressure, they floated a global tender for Haj, and the passengers and Hajis got some relief from this monopoly of Air India.
- Transit Difficulties:
There were no direct flights from Patna to Saudi Arabia due to the short runway at Patna Airport which could not support larger planes. Hajis going from Bihar had to first go to Calcutta, where often there would be a 10-12 hour wait for other Hajis to arrive, and then they would all be combined in a larger plane and sent together. The scene at the Calcutta airport was extremely chaotic, and those 12 hours of waiting at the airport were full of hassle for the Hajis.
Jamshaid proposed that direct flights be sent from Gaya instead – a survey was carried out and decided that with a 500 meter extension to the runway, it could support much larger flights. Jamshaid campaigned for this with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Civil Aviation Ministry. While the runway wasn’t extended, the proposal was accepted and now all Hajis go direct from Gaya instead of having to go to another state.
- Accommodation and treatment of Bihari Hajis:
There were very limited accommodation options for Bihari Hajis in Mecca and Medina, and these were terrible options – very low in quality, amenities, comfort, and were very far from the Haram Sharif – the main destination of the pilgrimage, which made it extremely difficult, especially for most of the old Hajis. The reason was that no representative from Bihar Haj Committee used to go along with the Central Haj Committee for selecting the accommodation at Mecca and Medina – so the leftover rejected accommodation used to get assigned to Bihar. Jamshaid insisted on sending a representative from the Bihar State Haj Committee along with the Central Haj Committee for selection of accommodation to ensure that much better quality accommodation, closer to Haram Sharif was allocated.
The difference due to these 5 factors that Jamshaid actively made happen was that the Hajis who went after these changes were highly appreciative of the changes made, and used to come back and specifically thank Jamshaid Ashraf for his achievement, and say that because of the comfort and practicality that was provided by him, they had specially prayed for him at Mecca during Haj.
The results of all of this can also be seen by the numbers. When Jamshaid Ashraf took over as the Chairman of Haj Committee, the quota for Bihar to send Hajis was 10,675 Hajis, but only 2,100 Hajis used to go due to the difficulties faced in going through the State Haj Committee. Under his tenure, the numbers started increasing as word spread of the improvements that had been made. By the time Jamshaid left, 4 years later, the number of Hajis going had shot up from 2,100 to 6,600 Hajis – an increase of over 300%!
