Naqvi hails 2018 Haj as 'landmark' pilgrimage

New Delhi: This year's Haj would be a "landmark" pilgrimage for Indians as several reforms such as doing away with subsidy and women going without a male guardian are associated with it, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Sunday.

The first batch of 410 Haj pilgrims was flagged off from here by Naqvi yesterday. Over 1,200 Haj pilgrims left from Delhi for Saudi Arabia in three flights yesterday.

Besides Delhi, 450 pilgrims from Gaya, 269 from Guwahati, 900 from Lucknow and 1,020 pilgrims from Srinagar also left for Saudi Arabia for Haj. Speaking to PTI over phone from Saudi Arabia, Indian Consul General in Jeddah Mohammed Noor Rahman Sheikh said he, along with the Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmad Javed, received the first batch of pilgrims in Madina.

Naqvi said here that despite the abolition of the Haj subsidy, the cost of the pilgrimage has increased only marginally and there was "no undue burden" on the people.

"People used to think that with the abolition of the subsidy, Haj would become 3-4 times costlier, that has not happened. If there is an increase, it is marginal," he told PTI in an interview. The government had in January announced that there would be no subsidy for Haj from this year and the funds saved would be used for providing education to the people belonging to minority communities.

"It would be a landmark Haj as several reforms are associated with it from subsidy-free Haj to women without Mehram going for Haj, and also this pilgrimage is taking place under the new Haj policy," Naqvi said. The Union minister said that for the first time after Independence, a record 1,75,025 Indians would be going for Haj this year, of whom about 47 per cent are female.