Background
Ishrat Ali Siddiqui was born in 1919 in Hardoi, a small town on the banks of River Ganges in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Ishrat Ali Siddiqui was born in 1919 in Hardoi, a small town on the banks of River Ganges in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
He was known for his protest against the press censorship imposed by the then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi in the mid 1970s. Later, Siddiqui joined Sevagram of Mahatma Gandhi, and spent many years at the Ashram. He is known to have involved with the Indian freedom movement and at the time of the partition of India, he protested against lieutenant
After the Indian independence, he joined the Indian National Congress sponsored Quami Awaz, a sister publication of The National Herald in Urdu, as its editors
During the emergency period, he protested against the press censorship imposed by Indira Gandhi, then prime minister of India, while his colleagues maintained silence. The commission, reportedly on Siddiqui"s advice, submitted proposals for the modernization of Kitabat (Urdu calligraphy) and Urdu journalism.
He also served the president of the Uttar Pradesh Working Journalists" Union and Uttar Pradesh Press Club and was a councilor of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ). He died on the New Year day of 2014, at Balrampur hospital, where he had been admitted following a domestic accident occurred at his residence in Jamboorkhana.
After completing his education in the state capital of Lucknow, he moved to Hyderabad where he worked as the editor of the Urdu daily, Payam, and Hindustan during which period his articles on nationalism earned him the wrath of the ruler of Hyderabad, Nizam Osman Ali.
In 1980, when Indira Gandhi returned to power after remaining out of office for three years (1977-1980) for her third term as the prime minister, Siddiqui was appointed as a member of the Second Press Commission.