Rasheed Kidwai Wiki, Age, Caste, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More

Rasheed Kidwai

Rasheed Kidwai is a renowned Indian journalist. He is a well-known author, columnist and political analyst. He appeared on various popular Indian news channels including News 18, Times Now, ABP news, and NDTV. Rasheed Kidwai particularly traces the news related to the Indian government and its political parties, community affairs and Hindi cinema. He also keeps the record of the Indian National Congress, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

Wiki/Biography

Rasheed Kidwai was born on Thursday, 20 July 1967 (age 54 years; as of 2021) in Lucknow. His zodiac sign is Cancer. In 1980, he received his school education from Centennial School, Lucknow. In 1984, he changed his school and started studying at Anglo Arabic School, Delhi. In 1986, he attended Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi. In 1989, he did Bachelors in Arts from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. Later, he pursued his master’s degree in Mass Communication Research from Leicester University, UK. Soon after completing his master’s degree, he was bestowed with a fellowship program by the British and Commonwealth Office, UK. [1]ORF Online

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 6″

Hair Colour: Salt and Pepper

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Rasheed Kidwai belongs to a family from Daryabad town in Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh.

Parents & Siblings

His grandfather’s name was Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi. He was a prominent English and Urdu commentator of the Quran. His parents’ name is not known.

Wife & Children

His wife’s name is Dr Farah Kidwai. She is a scientist at ‘G’ DRDO at the Ministry of Defence in the Government of India.

Career

Rasheed Kidwai was a former associate editor of The Telegraph, Calcutta. Kidwai regularly participates on several television channels, radio programs and newspapers. He frequently contributes his articles and writings to various print and broadcast media including Mumbai Mirror, The Print, The Tribune Chandigarh, ABP News Blog, Network 18, Inquilab, Prabhat Khabar, Rediff, The Quint, Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala.

Biographies

In 2003, Sonia – A Biography was published by Rasheed Kidwai in English. Later, it was translated into Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil languages. In 2009 and 2011, this book was again released with a revised edition. In 2011, the book 24 Akbar Road is a short history of the people who were regarded as the cause of the rise and fall of the Congress government in India. Rasheed Kidwai's book 24 Akbar Road

In 2018, in the book Neta Abhineta, Kidwai traced the political journey of several Indian Bollywood actors and actresses including Prithviraj Kapoor, Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Rekha, Mithun Chakraborty, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Govinda, Shatrughan Sinha, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Jaya Prada, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Paresh Rawal and Raj Babbar. [2]Business Standard

'Neta Abhineta' a book by Rasheed Kidwai

In the same year, in his book Ballot – Ten Episodes That Have Shaped India’s Democracy, he tracked the procedure of elections in India and his focussed politicians in the book were N T Ramarao, Bal Thackeray, Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee.

Ballot, a book by Rasheed Kidwai

His major works also include the book ‘The House of Scindias – a saga of Power, Politics and Intrigue.’ The House of Scindias by Rasheed Kidwai

Writings

  • What’s eating the congress
  • The complex narratives of ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’
  • COVID-19 and Indian Muslims
  • Cow Slaughter
  • Why we need a special law to curb mob lynching
  • Sachin Pilot & Co will be 49th breakaway from Congress, but only 16 survived on their own.

Facts/Trivia

  • Rasheed Kidwai is the Visiting Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, Delhi. [3]ORF Online
  • In several English, Hindi and Urdu newspapers and online portals, Rasheed Kidwai has been working as a columnist.
  • He particularly writes biographies and memoirs. English, Hindi and Urdu are his major languages.
  • In an interview, in 2017, Rasheed was asked that if Sonia Gandhi was not giving the charge of the Congress party to her son Rahul Gandhi, or why she was not formally announcing it. Rasheed then replied,

    As a seasoned politician, Sonia Gandhi is acutely aware of the reluctance of Congress leaders to wholeheartedly accept Rahul as the party’s supreme leader. She does not want to “impose” her son on them. There are 150 important leaders in the party, holding important posts and positions at various levels. She is trying to strike a balance so that the power transfer is a smooth affair.”

    He further added the two different ways of working of Sonia and Rahul in the INC,

    Rahul is an unconventional politician and drastically different from his mother. Rahul is more pragmatic. He does not care much for traditional power structures and hierarchies. Sonia Gandhi inherited a fragmented Congress in 1998 after a lot of thinking and deliberations. She was acutely conscious of her foreign origins. She ran the party [beginning in 1998] like a matriarch with a Japanese method of maximum consultation, minimum disciplinary action.”

  • In the book Neta – Abhineta, Rasheed Kidwai traced a life fraction from Raj Kapoor and Indira Gandhi’s time. An interesting fact from this book that Kidwai explained,

    Apparently, the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was so impressed with the Kapoors, she was hoping to have Rajiv married to Ritu, Raj Kapoor’s eldest. This wasn’t because she was starstruck, but because the Kapoors contributed significantly to “cultural diplomacy” and Prithviraj Kapoor also played an exemplary role as a nominated MP. Nehru was struck with amazement when he met Stalin on a tour to Russia as one of the questions he asked was about Raj Kapoor and Awara.”

    Another interesting story from this book was about the Indian film actress Nargis and Member Parliament Khushwant Singh,

    Nargis asking fellow Rajya Sabha MP Khushwant Singh for a favour, to stay at his home in Kasauli while dropping her son Sanjay Dutt to The Lawrence School, Sonawar. He agreed and later, when someone tried to introduce them, Nargis reportedly said — “I’ve slept in his bed!”

    In the same book, he wrote a fact about Jawaharlal Nehru,

    Whenever Jawaharlal Nehru was very impressed with a movie or play that was screened for him, he’d invite them home to Teen Murti, but this created other hassles. For instance, when Nehru invited Prithviraj Kapoor to his house for dinner, he turned it down because the other crew members were not invited. Nehru took note and, soon enough, all 60 turned up in Teen Murti Bhavan.”

  • Rasheed Kidwai in his book ‘The House of Scindias – a saga of Power, Politics and Intrigue’ wrote that Sonia Gandhi’s first choice as prime minister of the UPA government was Madhavrao Scindia instead of Dr Manmohan Singh, but Scindia died in a plane air-crash on 30 September 2001. He wrote,

    K. Natwar Singh, 89, diplomat-turned-politician insists even today that Madhavrao Scindia would have been PM if he had lived. He would have been Sonia Gandhi’s first choice as prime minister of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government instead of Dr Manmohan Singh.”

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