New Delhi: Former Member of Parliament and former Chief Editor of Urdu daily Nai Duniya Shahid Siddiqui has come under criticism over remarks he made about RSS-run schools during a podcast on his YouTube channel, I Witness with Shahid.
A clip from the podcast has gone viral on social media, in which Siddiqui makes a series of allegations about children from the Northeast being brought to RSS-linked institutions and trained to develop hostility towards minorities.
This is disgusting vile propaganda. Images are disturbing & totally misleading. RSS allied organisations run most transperant schools and hostels. They never convert. North East hostels have hundreds of Christian children. No allurements are ever offered. Is this to equate them… https://t.co/5jD1bjyp3X
— Ratan Sharda 🇮🇳 रतन शारदा (@RatanSharda55) August 9, 2026
In the viral clip, Siddiqui alleged that people associated with the RSS were bringing girls from the Northeast and keeping them at different locations for training. He claimed that children were allegedly taught to hate minorities, including Christians and Muslims.
Siddiqui also claimed, without providing supporting evidence in the clip, that around 10 lakh children had been taken over a period of 10 years. He alleged that parents were told their children were being taken away for education and to improve their employment prospects, but were not given the “full picture” about what would happen to them. He further claimed that the children were taken with their parents’ consent, while alleging that the parents were not adequately informed about the nature or purpose of the programme.
RSS ideologue Ratan Sharda has criticised Siddiqui’s remarks and questioned the basis of the allegations. Sharda has previously spoken out against what he describes as misinformation and unsubstantiated claims concerning the RSS and its activities. The allegations made by Siddiqui in the podcast clip have not been independently established.
Shahid Siddiqui’s controversial statements and past
Siddiqui, who has switched political affiliations several times over the years, has also faced criticism over some of his previous public statements and social media posts.
In 2021, a video of Siddiqui surfaced on social media in which he claimed that he had contributed money to madrasas across Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar. In the video, he was heard saying that there was “not even a single madarsa” in the two districts to which he had not contributed. He also claimed to have donated crores of rupees to such institutions.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Siddiqui publicly thanked Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi for helping arrange Remdesivir after he sought assistance on social media. He said Gandhi had initially not wanted him to thank her publicly. The episode attracted criticism amid a nationwide shortage of the drug and concerns surrounding its availability and alleged hoarding.
In May 2020, Siddiqui also shared a video showing a mother and child travelling between compartments of a moving train while criticising the government’s handling of the migrant crisis. He captioned the post, “Look at this mother travelling on a goods train with a child.” The video was subsequently reported to be from Bangladesh and dated back to 2016, rather than depicting the movement of migrant workers in India during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Shahid Siddiqui’s political journey
Siddiqui has had a long and often-changing political career. He began his political journey with the Congress and became the head of the party’s minority cell in 1997. In 2002, he joined the Samajwadi Party and later served as a Rajya Sabha member representing the party until 2008.
He subsequently joined the Bahujan Samaj Party but was expelled after publicly criticising then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. In 2010, he joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal but later left the party after it entered into an alliance with the Congress ahead of the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. He subsequently returned to the Samajwadi Party.
The Samajwadi Party expelled Siddiqui in 2012 after he interviewed PM Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Later, during the 2019 Delhi Assembly elections, Siddiqui extended his support to the Aam Aadmi Party while maintaining that he had not formally joined the party. His repeated political realignments, along with controversies surrounding some of his public statements and social media posts, have continued to make Siddiqui a subject of political debate.
