Smriti Irani promises a new Hajj policy 'which reflects PM Modi's resolutions'

News Network

January 12, 2023

The Union government is likely to announce a new Hajj policy after scrapping the discretionary Hajj quota that was available with people in top constitutional posts and the minority affairs ministry.

Earlier, union minister Smriti Irani announced govt’s decision to do away with VIP Hajj asserting that the step has been taken as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resolve to end 'VIP culture'.

Around 500 people could go to Hajj through seats allocated to the President, Vice President, prime minister, minority affairs minister and Haj committee under the VIP Haj quota. The quota has now been scrapped.

Now all Haj pilgrims will go through the Hajj committee and private tour operators only. The move, as a letter states, is to stop the VIP culture.

There were 100 seats in the President's quota, 75 in the Vice President's quota, 75 in the PM quota and 50 in the minority affairs minister quota. Even the 200 seats with the Hajj Committee of India have been done away with.

“Prime Minister Modi had put forward his resolve to end VIP culture on the very first day of his term. VIP culture was put in place with respect to Hajj during the UPA rule under which there was a special quota allocated to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Haj Committee and all those in top constitutional posts," Irani said.

She said that when it was started in 2012, there were around 5,000 seats under this special quota and if one knew someone in the government, one would be given a special category seat.

"The government has ended that... The PM believed that if we have to do away with VIP culture completely then if there is any such special categorisation in any department, it should be ended," Irani said. She also said an exhaustive Hajj policy reflecting the PM's resolves and one that will take care of the poor's needs would be announced in the future.

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Israel shifts forces deeper into Gaza, strikes hit families trapped inside

News Network

November 21,2025

Local authorities say the Israeli military has expanded the so-called “yellow line” truce demarcation in Gaza City and repositioned its forces deeper into the territory in violation of a ceasefire agreement that came into force on October 10, besieging dozens of Palestinian families.

Gaza’s Government Media Office announced in a statement on Thursday that Israeli forces widened the boundary by shifting the markers, and advanced roughly 300 meters (984 feet) into the neighborhoods of Ash-Shaaf, An-Nazzaz and Baghdad Street.

The move pushed further into civilian areas, trapping families who were unable to flee as tanks rolled forward, it added.

“The fate of many of these families remains unknown amidst the shelling that targeted the area,” the office said, adding that the expansion of the yellow line shows a “blatant disregard” for the ceasefire deal.

On Friday, sources said the Israeli military carried out continued air and artillery strikes inside the so-called “yellow line” east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

According to the reports, Israeli warplanes and tanks targeted areas within the zone. One Palestinian was reported killed and several others wounded in the strikes, the sources said.

The fresh aggression came only a day after 25 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis on Wednesday.

The media office reported that Israel has consistently violated the truce deal since its implementation last month, with near-daily attacks by air, artillery and direct shootings.

The office said over 400 violations have been documented. These breaches have resulted in the deaths of more than 300 Palestinians and left hundreds injured.

The Government Media Office in Gaza urged the guarantors of the ceasefire — the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey — to take swift action to halt the ongoing violations and facilitate the delivery of food, shelter materials, medical aid, and infrastructure equipment.

The so-called “yellow line,” set out in the agreement between Israel and Hamas resistance movement, refers to a non-physical partition where the Israeli military repositioned itself when the truce deal took effect.

It has allowed Israel, which routinely fires at Palestinians who approach the line, to retain control over more than half of the Gaza Strip.

International bodies, including the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, and other rights groups, have concluded that the Israeli war on Gaza amounts to genocide.

In the attacks in Gaza since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 69,546 people and injured 170,833 others, leveling large swaths of the territory and displacing almost all of the population.

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