The heading of my column is, obviously, an adaptation of a famous sentence written by Ian Fleming, creator of the iconic spy, James Bond. The same series had one more film titled Licence to Kill. It is a strange coincidence that while James Bond supposedly had the licence to kill the bad guys, it may well be said that India’s electoral ‘Bond’ seems to have the licence to kill democracy!
Electoral bonds had a very auspicious beginning. The then finance minister, while introducing the Budget on February 1, 2017, introduced electoral bonds as a. . .