In February 2017, the government quietly made four crucial amendments to four different Acts in the Finance Bill, 2017 before introducing electoral bonds. The Quint has found out that the Election Commission (EC) had sharply criticised the amendments, calling it a “retrograde step” which also opens up the possibility of setting up of shell companies and routing black money.

However, the government ignored these objections and we, the people, got to know nothing about it.

The government had stated that the objective of the electoral bond was to keep the donor anonymous. The Quint revealed on 12 April that there were hidden unique alphanumeric sequences on electoral bonds which may be used to secretly track donors.