Thread by @reporters_co

SC is hearing today a petition for stay on sale of electoral bonds ahead of the state polls.
In Nov 2019 member @nit_set exposed, through a series of stories, several irregularities in how the govt devised the controversial political-funding scheme.

A thread on what we know 👇

Documents revealed that the Reserve Bank of India had warned that electoral bonds could funnel black money into politics and destabilise the currency. But the then finance minister Arun Jaitley dismissed it. Read the full investigation in four languages👇
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A confidential note also revealed that finance ministry officials intentionally misled the Election Commission in an effort to dilute its opposition to the electoral bond scheme. Documents were accessed through RTI by Commodore Lokesh Batra. In part 2 :

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When six critical states went to polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office directed the finance ministry to break its own rules to approve the special and illegal sale of electoral bonds. The part 3 revealed. reporters-collective.in/projects/paisa…

Documents also nailed the govt's lies on anonymity of the bonds. The State Bank of India maintains a record of donors and the political parties, which the law enforcement can access. Read in Part 4.
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The bonds worth Rs 10 crore were redeemed soon after the 2018 Karnataka state elections resulted in a hung assembly. The Prime Minister's Office made SBI Accept expired electoral bonds sold in an illegal window. In part 5.
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The govt claimed repeatedly that donors asked for electoral bonds as a secret funding mechanism due to fear of political retribution if they used transparent methods of funding. RTI replies showed this was a lie. Part 6.
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The Modi govt gave a bizarre justification: Corporates should be allowed to donate secretly because they have a Right to Life under the Constitution which overrides citizens' right to information and is equal to citizen's right to secret ballot! In part 7
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The law ministry said Modi Govt’s route to pass electoral bonds was illegal but signed off anyway.
Documents also revealed that crucial discussions on allowing shell companies to secretly fund political parties were not officially recorded. In Part 8. reporters-collective.in/projects/paisa…

Even the State Bank of India lied in replies to the Right To Information requests on electoral bonds. It, however, kept regularly sharing updates on the controversial funding scheme with the finance ministry. Read in part 9. reporters-collective.in/projects/paisa…

Documents also showed that while politicians benefitted from the controversial funding, all the costs associated with sale of the electoral bonds were paid from the taxpayers' money. In part 10.
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The SC heard the govt, the Election Commission of India and the petitioner Association of Democratic Reforms and reserved its orders. This is what happened in the hearing today:

https://twitter.com/LiveLawIndia/status/1374594722476347393?s=20