Chandigarh: Former Punjab director general of police Mohammed Mustafa urged Congress leadership to take decisive steps to address the ongoing turmoil within the Punjab unit and warned that continued indecision could further weaken the party ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.Mustafa, who is not a member of the Congress but earlier served as principal strategic adviser when Navjot Singh Sidhu was president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), shared the two-page letter on social media under the title, ‘An Open Letter to the Congress Top Brass: An Unsolicited Advice & Plea for Decisiveness’.Mustafa’s letter comes amid continuing unrest within the Punjab Congress over the party’s recent organisational appointments. His wife, Razia Sultana, served as a minister in the previous Congress govt in Punjab and has been appointed co-chairperson of the party’s election management and coordination committee. Their daughter, Nishat Akhtar, is the president of the Malerkotla District Congress Committee.In the letter, Mustafa described the recent developments in the Punjab Congress, including the meeting of dissenting leaders at former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s residence in Morinda, as the outcome of prolonged indecision by the party leadership. He argued that the Congress high command showed excessive leniency towards leaders who, according to him, believed they were “bigger than the party.”Referring to Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Mustafa said the party leadership should objectively assess its options. He wrote that if the high command decided to appoint a new Punjab Congress president, the choice should be based on merit rather than pressure or factional considerations. At the same time, he said Warring should voluntarily step aside if doing so strengthened the party and leave the final decision to the Congress leadership.Mustafa also urged the Congress leadership not to allow itself to be influenced by pressure from individual leaders while making organisational decisions. He argued that appointments should be made on merit and warned that rewarding loyalty over competence would only perpetuate poor decision-making. He further called for disciplinary action against those whom he accused of weakening the organisation, saying the party must restore institutional authority.Warning that the developments in Morinda could mark the beginning of a larger internal crisis, Mustafa claimed that similar pressure tactics could recur, including demands to project a chief ministerial face for the 2027 assembly elections. He advised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to first undertake “course correction ” and then take firm decisions to restore discipline within the party.Mustafa concluded the letter by urging the Congress leadership to act without delay, stating that postponing difficult decisions would only deepen the organisational crisis.
