The BJP is militantly Hindu nationalist. Its creed is "Hindu, Hindi, Hindutva, Hindu Rashtra." Its leaders say things like all Indians must either be Hindus or subservient to Hindus.
The BJP is the political arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), an umbrella organization that is th parent organization of both BJP and its even more militant coalition partner, Shiv Sena. The RSS was founded in 1925 in admiration and support of the Fascists. Its tentacles include the violent Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which is the organization that murdered missionary Graham Staines. The RSS itself has produced a booklet detailing how to file fake criminal cases against Christians and othe rminorities. Yet Prime Minister Vajpayee told an audience in New York in 2000, "I will always be a Swayamsewak."
The Congress Party is no better. For one thing, it's like the Democratic Party, only more so. It's out-and-out socialist and is in coalition with the Communist Party among many others. Despite its claim to be secular, it was a Congress government that carried out the military attack on the Golden Temple, the seat of the Sikh religion, and 38 other Sikh temples in Punjab, killing at least 20,000. It was a Congress government that inflicted the worst bloodshed on Punjab, on Kashmir, and on other minority states.
The choice is much like an election between Nazis and Communists. "Any way you look at it, you lose." There seems to be recognition of this from both sides of the aisle and from across the political spectrum here in the USA. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) has said, "The mere fact that they [minorities] have the right to choose their oppressors does not mean tehy live in a democracy." Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Cal.) has said, "“When it comes to Kashmir and Punjab and Jammu, the Indian Government might as well not be a democracy. For people in those areas, India might as well be Nazi Germany.”
I find it increasingly difficult to find any good guys anywhere in Pakistan or in India. Everybody seems intolerant and ready to take it out on somebody different. There are even Baptist guerrillas in northeast India, for pete's sake.
Obviously, it's the extremists in every movement or political party who get the headlines, and they don't really define the average person on the street who just wants to make a living somehow. But it's difficult, at least for me, to point at one group and say, "Aha! Those are the good guys!"