New Delhi: Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on June 5 said that nothing has been decided yet on the Hajj pilgrimage 2021. He also said that it will depend on the Saudi government’s decision.
As per the minister’s quote shared on ANI’s Twitter handle, “PM Narendra Modi has said India will stand by the side of the Saudi govt in their decision”.
Cap on number of Hajj pilgrims
Earlier, Saudi Arabia had announced that 60 thousand people will be allowed to perform hajj this year. Out of them, 15,000 will be domestic pilgrims.
According to a report published in The Hindu, Central Haj Committee officials have predicted that Saudi Arabia would put a cap of 5000 pilgrims from India. No prediction has been made over the State-wise breakup of the pilgrims.
Apart from reducing the number of Hajj pilgrims, the Kingdom has also made it clear that pilgrims aged below 10 years and above 60 years will not be allowed. Persons who were hospitalized in the past six months are also not permitted to perform Hajj.
Hajj pilgrims during pre-COVID times
During pre-COVID times, millions of pilgrims used to perform Hajj every year. In 2019, 2.5 million pilgrims from across the world had performed Hajj.
As the Saudi Arabia government used to allow one in one thousand Muslims from India, 1.75 lakh Indian pilgrims performed Hajj in 2019.