How did Justice VR Krishna Iyer go from communist to Modi fan?

While two literary giants of India, UR Ananthamurthy and Amitav Ghosh, have spoken out against Narendra Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial choice, Justice VR Krishna Iyer surprised the nation with his outright endorsement of the man.

A minister in the first communist government in Kerala, the former Supreme Court judge who was CPM’s candidate for the presidentship of India in 1987, the judge and jurist who spoke for the rights of Muslims, and above all the veteran civil rights activist who was part of the citizen’s panel that investigated the Gujarat riots in 2002, Krishna Iyer’s words of praise for Modi are perhaps one of the strangest examples of the socio-political opportunism of Indian public figures.

In 2002, his report had alleged that the carnage, in which hundreds of Muslims were killed, was "organised crime perpetrated by the chief minister and his government."

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Not that he is expressing his adulation for Modi for the first time, but nullifying everything that he stood for in terms of civil and human rights is hugely disappointing.

Earlier in June, when Modi got re-elected to the chief minister’s office, he wrote to him: “You made your government free from corruption and gave a Gandhian holiday to alcoholism — good enough to make you a leader. When the appropriate time comes, lead the nation on the Gandhian model of integrity, anti-alcoholism and a socialist secular national policy.”

For Krishna Iyer, Modi is Gandhian, socialist and secular.

And a newfound reason, laughably, is his reported commitment to solar power!

More than Modi, the veteran jurist’s words turn the spotlight on himself and his contradictions in his long and illustrious public life. In fact, the contradictions are too stark to ignore and are worthy of a re-examination lest his statement on Modi misleads us.

Let’s look back a little - at the transformation of a revered Communist/jurist and rights activist to a Modi fan.

As the law minister of the first Communist government in Kerala in 1957 (the first ever democratically elected Communist government anywhere in the world), he was credited with the revolutionary Kerala Land Reforms Act that completely changed the nature of landholdings in the state. However, critics of his land reforms still allege that large tracts of land owned by people of influence or those privy to inside information had been converted into untouchable trust properties ahead of the Act.

In 1967, the CPI wanted him to contest the assembly elections, but dropped the plan allegedly because he wanted the assurance of a ministerial berth - former Kerala chief minister C Achutha Menon himself had noted this. Soon, he became a judge of the Kerala High Court and subsequently, a judge of the Supreme Court during the Congress regime.

While most of the rights activists were in jail or underground during the emergency, he was a Supreme Court judge.

After he retired from the Supreme Court, he wanted to become the President of India in 1987 (contesting against R Venkataraman) with the support of the CPM.

And guess whom he wrote to for support?
LK Advani.
And what did Advani tell him?
"You are a handmaiden of the Soviet Union and therefore we are not in a position to support you."

When the controversial spiritual and political leader from Kerala, Adbul Nazer Mahdani was in Coimbatore jail for his alleged role in the serial blasts in the city, it was Krishna Iyer, who led the campaign for his release. After nine years in jail, the courts finally acquitted him. The tendency of suspecting Muslims is not apt for the nation’s culture, he had reportedly said.

Mahdani was subsequently arrested by Karnataka Police and is now in jail without bail for his alleged role in the Bangalore blasts. Taking up his case again, Krishna Iyer wrote to the President of India to expedite his trial. "It is a disgrace to the Indian justice system to put a man in prison for nine years and then let him free, and now he is again in jail," he wrote.

Iyer was also a campaigner for Islamic banking in India. During his career as a judge he had delivered several important judgements interpreting the statutory and personal law of Muslims, that had been compiled into a book.
Are Krishna Iyer and Modi on the same page on Muslims, personal law of Muslims and human rights? Where does Krishna Iyer now stand on the 2002 riots? Can one have two standards for human rights and public life? One for Mahdani and another (changed one) for the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots?

Amitav Ghosh was clear that “while it was for the courts to decide the level of responsibility he (Modi) bore for the 2002 riots, the fact remained that the ‘appalling’ event took place on his watch and he was therefore culpable.”

“Modi can neither reflect ancient India nor can he build a model India. I will have no belongingness to India represented by Modi. I, in fact, will not like to live in India during that period", Ananthamurthy has been quoted as saying in this report.

Does Modi claim to be a Gandhian or a socialist?

Is his fight against corruption exemplary?

Does he practice “Swaraj” as Krishna Iyer believes he does?

So, finally is it about solar power and prohibition that make a good prime minister?