Shahid Siddiqui is secular. He is after all perhaps the only politician who fits the definition of that contentious term for parties on both sides of the ideological divide – the Left and the Right. For the former, he is the perfect example of the not-every Muslim-is-a-terrorist argument and for the Indian Right, he did that one thing that ensures instant legitimacy in the circle: approve of Narendra Modi.

For the uninitiated, Shahid Siddiqui, in his current avatar, is the Chief Editor of Nai Dunia – an Urdu weekly published out of Delhi. That, however, is only one of the many hats he dons. According to his LinkedIn profile, Siddiqui has also been Professor of Political Science at Delhi University. This, of course, in addition to the fact that he was member of Rajya Sabha from 2002-2008.  Siddiqui’s political stint was eventful to say the least – he was part of as many as four political parties. He was thrown out of two of them – a feat that Siddiqui believes should have fetched him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Siddiqui’s position as the undisputed secular poster boy of the country is, however, under threat following an “exposé” by a certain Tufail Ahmed. Ahmed, who’s a columnist with The New Indian Express, took to Twitter to reveal a not-so-secular Siddiqui: a side he apparently keeps restricted to the Urdu magazine he edits.

So what prompted Ahmed to “expose” Siddiqui suddenly? (Some of the covers Ahmed has pointed out are from more than a year back.) Ahmed, who lives in the United Kingdom and is the Director of the South Asia Studies Project of the Washington DC-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), told Newslaundry it is his “routine work to monitor Pakistani and Indian media outlets”.

“However, Shahid Siddiqui’s Nai Dunia has been on my mind since the 1980s, when I went to high school. I knew that it sells mass fears and conspiracy theories among Indian Muslims. I just googled to find out if the magazine is available on the Internet.

“As I went through its recent issues, I was stunned and horrified to see that the magazine hasn’t changed over the course of the past few decades and continues to inject into Indian Muslim mass consciousness a sense of global Islamic victimhood and stereotypes that are detrimental to the interests of unsuspecting common readers. It is also horrifying that in one issue, the magazine went on to insinuate that the intelligence agencies of both India and Pakistan were working together to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister of India and in another issue it argued that the RSS had developed an “antankwadi” (terror) plan to make him the Prime Minister,” wrote Ahmed in an email to us.

Ahmed believes that the articles, images and headlines Siddiqui publishes in Nai Dunia as its Chief Editor will not be acceptable to Indian citizens if they were in English or Hindi. “However, even a cursory review makes it clear that Siddiqui’s magazine undermines Muslim self-confidence, harms the social cohesion of India and democratic ethos of the Indian republic, and creates an intellectual environment in which jihadist viewpoints thrive,” he said.

Ahmed claims though that his intention was not to “expose” Siddiqui and he was only acting in tandem with his “journalistic instincts”.

Incidentally, Ahmed is not the first one to point out Sidiqqui’s radical Urdu avatar, which is at complete loggerheads with his secular image in the more mainstream English and Hindi media. Madhu Kishwar had done so way back in April last year.

Siddiqui, though, remains defiant. In a telephonic interview with Newslaundry, Siddiqui said that Ahmed has selectively quoted some headlines and even distorted them. He contended that “an editor cannot personally look into very aspect of a news organisation” (the stories that Ahmed has quoted happen to be cover stories). “The Taslima Nasreen headline was condemnable but that slipped by in my absence and I don’t think any of the other headlines are problematic,” said Siddiqui.

Siddiqui also claimed that his views on Twitter are personal and don’t necessarily reflect those of Nai Dunia. “A journalist has his independent existence on Twitter and often uses Twitter to express opinions he can’t otherwise,” explained Siddiqui. When asked about what he thought was Ahmed’s motivation behind “exposing” the tweets, he said, “Ahmed is out to prove every Muslim in the country is a Jihadist – a line of thought that the Prime Minister has publicly denounced.”

Siddiqui informed us that he is in talks with his lawyers and his future course of action will be contingent on legal advice.

There will always be left-leaning, right-leaning and loony-leaning news outlets, but it takes special ability to be able to be all of them at the same time. Siddiqui, it seems, has added that feather to his cap too.