Difference between Congress and BJP

BJP the Center-Right "Hindu Nationalist" Party and the Congress Center-Left "Secular Nationalist" Party constantly try and prove to Indians that they are parallel tracks that would never converge at any point. For Congress, BJP is a RSS sponsored Religious party with roots into Upper Caste Hindu's. BJP rarely speaks of Congress party genesis. However, Congress considers itself sole protector of the Secular India.

Half way between the Left and Right, we see the Center. Here is the common ground for both the parties.

Every party while in the opposition benches talks for Poor, downtrodden, vulnerable, farmers, minority religions and then minorities with in the Religions. In a nutshell, to get back the political power, this class of the citizens are their core vote banks. Politicians far exceed Mathematicians and Physicists to invent n-dimensional world where in they can group vote banks en-mass into various dimensions.  BJP in New Delhi and Congress in Gujarat apply the same principle - divide and attract the vote banks. And then cultivate them with the false promises.

Once in the power, Congress or BJP get into the hands of Power brokers and lobbyists. The right wing, Hindutva BJP despite being in the power for close to a decade could not build the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. If BJP wants, building the temple is not difficult. Yet, BJP knew very well that Ram Mandir and Lord Rama are their trump cards to come in handy while in opposition. Without these, for BJP leadership there are no Rathyatras.

On to the corruption, BJP leadership thinks that, there are no A.Raja's in their backyard and hence they are holy and a clean party. But, their own RSS child Yeddiyurappa in Bangalore and Reddy brothers are symbols and results of their power and brokerages respectively. Despite all the talk on Bofors and huge parliamentary debates, BJP could not unearth anything on the mother of all Indian scams. Naturally, while in power - both would drift to Center and mutual interests have to be protected. In essence, despite all the talk of corruption in the Government, once they swap their benches both Congress and BJP tactically protect each other.

Congress unlike BJP does not suffer from the symbolic leadership. Unless Rahul Gandhi remains bachelor, Gandhi tag is good enough to see Congress through for some decades to come. But, Utter Pradesh elections would confirm the best and worst of Rahul "the Prince" Gandhi. For BJP, the serious issue is - no one is fitting into the shoes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Narendra Modi, despite hugely successful, remains with in Gujarat for now. Advani at best is a failure to lead from the front and rest of the Delhi bridge are spin doctors.

Congress projects itself Secular. The unfortunate Babri Masjid issue is nothing to do with Congress (PV Narasimha Rao is the culprit though the commission investigated this demolition absolved him completely). But anti-Sikh riots of 1984 (Rajiv Gandhi), atrocities during emergency (Indira Gandhi) and partition of British India (Nehru) still goes into the Congress Party account. Yet, Narendrabhai Modi is the biggest sinner of all time for Godhra. BJP genesis with in the Upper Caste Hindu's took a beating in Utter Pradesh where Mayawati proved smarter and merged this vote bank into her dalit vote.

Despite all the opposition to the Economic liberalisation of 1990's by Congress, Vajpayee Government was miles ahead with FDI and opening up the economy than Manmohan Singh government of past 7 years. BJP track record in this space is lot better thanks to Mahajan's and Jaitley's. But interestingly though, these (including Vajpayee and Advani) are hard core nationalists born from grassroots of RSS

Looking at BJP and Congress since 1990, I think both are simply other side of the coin. Switching the roles while out of power and then, implementing the same policies once in power. Center-Right and Center-Left are simply notional and hypothetical stand to appeal to their core vote bank. In the end, both of them love America, happily work with lobbyists, criticise Pakistan in the similar tone, open up the economy and give a false image "India Shining".

Lokpal bill is neither on Left nor on Right. It is on the Center and hence, both BJP and Congress together ensured that Anna Hazare and in turn Citizens of India are defeated in the name of democracy.