So what really happened?
To start with, the government lied to Parliament about the Election Commission not having any objections to electoral bonds. Confidential communication between the two institutions shows the EC kept stating its opposition to the bonds right up until they were created) and the government ignored the EC’s reminders to respond to its concerns.
In fact, it took three senior finance ministry officials and six different explanations for the government to backtrack after then MOS Finance, P. Radhakrishnan was caught lying to Parliament when he said the government had not received “any concerns from EC on the issue of Electoral Bearer Bonds”. The EC’s first letter was sent as early as 2017. The government didn’t just lie on the floor of Parliament, the most hallowed ground of Indian democracy, about the EC’s support (rather, lack) for electoral bonds, it also misled the EC about the bonds.
Then economic affairs secretary, S.C. Garg, seems to have knowingly misled the Election Commission by telling officials the scheme would ensure transparency in corporate funding (since the EC was concerned about money laundering). However, Garg’s claims about accounting which would ensure “complete transparency” regarding the “source of funds used for buying electoral bonds” as well as the “quantum of political donations” were false.
Companies are not required to detail to whom they donated electoral bonds in their profit-and-loss statements and balance sheets. Only the aggregated profit-and-loss accounts and balance sheets, which form part of the annual submissions to the government, are available for public scrutiny.
Even as late as October 2018, the law and justice ministry records show, the Election Commission continued to insist upon the rollback of the bonds and other anti-transparency provisions the government had introduced. The ministry’s records also show the finance ministry continued to ignore reminders to respond to the Commission’s formally submitted views.
What else?
The government didn’t just go through the charade of soliciting feedback (which it planned to ignore all along) from the RBI and EC, it also did the same to several opposition political parties.
The treasurer of the Congress, BSP’s president Mayawati, even BJP ally Shiromani Akali Dal expressed concerns and opposition to electoral bonds. And just like with the RBI and the Election Commission, the government ignored them all.
What next?
Look out for Part Three of #PaisaPolitics on https://www.huffingtonpost.in/ tomorrow! | 
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