Eminent Supreme Court lawyer and the expelled leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, Prashant Bhushan, launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government, which he said was trying to appoint corrupt elements in anti-corruption bodies and saffronise academic institutions.

Speaking to media in Patna on Sunday, Bhushan said, “The shortlist made to appoint Central Vigilance Commissioner revealed that the topmost name was of a corrupt Income Tax officer who sat on the information regarding black money provided by Swiss bank HSBC. He used to meet former CBI Director Ranjit Sinha stealthily as he was probing him.”

Bhushan along with another former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav is in Bihar for his Swarraj Abhiyan programme.

News agency PTI quoted him as saying that the delay behind appointing the CVC was because the Modi government was trying to appoint corrupt people to anti-corruption institutions,

Bhushan added, “Black money is not coming back to our country as promised by them (the Modi government), but they are trying to interfere in the appointment of judges in the Supreme Court and the High Courts through National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).”

As for the academic institutions, he said that the efforts were being made to saffronise India’s premier institutions such as “NCERT, UGC, NCERT, Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and other such bodies.”

Taking a dig at the Union HRD Minister, Smriti Irani, he said that “even our HRD Minister goes to astrologer, shows her palm and asks when she will become the President of India.”