A journalist who has interviewed every Indian Prime Minister since Indira Gandhi, a politician whose career ended after interviewing Narendra Modi, and a man who has spent five decades in the corridors of power — that is how most people who know Shahid Siddiqui would describe him.
Both a journalist and a politician, Siddiqui has reported on every major event in India’s political history since the 1960s — from the Emergency to the 1984 riots, from the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi to the rise of Narendra Modi.
He has now chronicled these experiences in his new book, I, Witness.
But while the book takes readers through the annals of Indian politics over the past six decades, it also makes several serious allegations against those he once worked with in the political arena — from blaming Arun Nehru for the 1984 riots to accusing the Congress of pressuring him not to publish his 2012 interview with Modi.
At the same time, Siddiqui reflects on his experiences as a Muslim in post-Partition India, the changing shades of syncretism he has witnessed under various regimes, and the reasons that led him to switch between four parties over two decades of political life.
On Badi Badi Baatein, Siddiqui positions himself as a witness to Independent India’s most pivotal moments. The question remains: how much of his telling in I, Witness stands up to scrutiny — and how much invites debate?