Mustafa began her career in journalism with The Pioneer, moved to The Patriot in 1979, and worked for several other Indian publications, including The Telegraph and Indian Express before joining the Asian Age in 1997 as its political editor and Delhi bureau chief. While with the Asian Age, Mustafa received the prestigious "Prem Bhatia Award for Excellence in Political Reporting and Analysis" in 1999 for her coverage of the Kargil war. She also wrote a weekly op-ed column which was syndicated to several other newspapers, including The Deccan Chronicle of Bangalore and The Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper. In 2008, she wrote an op-ed that was uncharacteristically critical of the Congress party. The article denounced the Indo-US Nuclear Deal specifically and the congress-led government in general for seeking friendly relations with the George W. Bush administration.. Although the intemperance of her views and language elicited criticism in the Indian media, MJ Akbar, founding editor of the Asian Age, defended Mustafa strongly and the newspaper propagated the same views as hers on its pages. Ultimately, M.J. Akbar and Mustafa were both sacked from the Asian Age. After leaving the Asian Age in 2008, Mustafa worked as Resident Editor of Covert, a fortnightly left-wing political magazine. In January 2010, her mentor M.J. Akbar launched The Sunday Guardian, a weekly newspaper, and Mustafa joined him as Resident Editor. By September the same year, the publication was on its last legs and was acquired by the ITV Group, which runs the India-TV and NewsX television news channels. After the sale, Akbar moved to the India Today group, while Mustafa moved to NewsX, hosting a weekly interview programme named Straight Talk With Seema Mustafa on that channel. She served as National Affairs Editor of News X. The program did not get enough TRPs, and Mustafa moved on again. She next took over the job of Director of a new, left-wing think-tank based in New Delhi named the "Centre for Policy Analysis" , a position she presently holds. Concurrently, in January 2014, she founded The Citizen, an independent "Digital Daily" based out of New Delhi.
Writing style
Mustafa has been noted for having a characteristic leftist and socialist perspective.
Political career
Mustafa has been associated with several communist and socialist political parties since the 1980s. She wrote the authorised biography of former prime ministerVP Singh, entitled The Lonely Prophet, and was closely associated with him during his lifetime. She was a member of his party, the Janata Dal, for many years. She once contested the UPprovincial assembly elections as a Janata Dal candidate but lost. Mustafa also contested parliamentary elections to the Lok Sabha two times from the Domariaganj constituency in Uttar Pradesh, but lost badly and even forfeited her election deposit on both occasions. In the 1991 elections, she took the 4th position in 1991 and in 1996, the 10th position. In 1991, she contested as a candidate of the Indian Congress - Sarat Chandra Sinha, an obscure splinter of the Indian National Congress, itself a splinter of the Congress party. In 1996, she contested as an independent candidate. In 2012–13, Mustafa associated herself with the Communist Party of India in its campaign to pressure the government of India to oppose the US and support Iran on the issue of Iran's right to develop nuclear weapons. Mustafa is part of the CPM's Committee to Campaign for an Independent Foreign Policy. She has of course written extensively in opposition to the Indo-US Nuclear Agreement.
