So how does the “electoral bond” work and how does it protect the identity of the donor?

Is it really protected or does the government (and no one else) know the donation flow so that the government of the day can fine-tune its behaviour towards the donors to opposition parties (again a charge levied against the present BJP govt which at various times and by various people has been called the most “vindictive” ruling regime of any India has seen in past 70 years).

What does the bond look like and what is the experience of purchasing a bond?

As someone deeply interested in transparent and open public donations myself, I was curious to find out about these questions myself. I had missed the first “electoral bond window’ (1 March-10 March) but decided to purchase an electoral bond for myself this time and share my experiences with the public at large.

So, yesterday, I went out to the SBI Main branch at Parliament street and invested close to 3 hours of my time and consumed 3 hours of 2 bank officers and perhaps another 30 minutes of an AGM (admin) before I could lay my hands on my first “electoral bond”, a promissory note of a full Rs. 1000/- (if we calculate the total man hours taken up by this exercise, the bank lost approx. Rs 2000 according to my calculations. And don’t ask about my lost opportunity cost!!)