At least one investor has close ties to the Indian government in the company tasked with collecting and facilitating applications from prospective Haj pilgrims living in Western countries.
Saudi Arabia’s authorities announced last week that Haj pilgrims from Australia, Europe, and the United States would need to apply for visas through the government portal Motawif, in an effort to combat “fake” travel agencies.
The Saudi government has made few statements about why the decision was made so close to this year’s Haj, but a MEE investigation reveals that an individual involved in facilitating millions of dollars in investments into Traveazy — a Dubai-based company that has been exclusively contracted to process western applications through Motawif — has ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Prashant Prakash, vice president and partner at venture capital firm Accel India, has served on India’s National Startup Advisory Council since 2020 and became a policy and strategy adviser to Basavaraj Bommai, chief minister of the BJP-run government in Karnataka and a key Modi ally, in 2021.
