In the last year, it has become aptly clear like never before that the choice before the Indian voter has become the case of Twiddle Dee Dee and Twiddle Dee Dum. On most political or even issues concerning rights and justice, there seems to be little to differentiate between the two.

While the BJP has been held responsible for communal riots and the breakdown of democracy – and it does have a long history of spreading hate with the Babri Masjid episode, the subsequent riots and then the Gujarat riot being notable highlights of that history – the congress has not redeemed itself in the 20 years since the Sikh massacres in Delhi. That one man widely believed to have been involved with the riots is the Union Minister for NRI affairs perhaps signifies the Congress government’s resolve to bring to justice those involved in those events over 20 years ago. In such a situation, it is unlikely that the Congress will do much to bring to justice those in the Gujarat administration who were involved in the riots of 2002.

In the short time since coming back to power, the Congress government has already reminded us of the undemocratic practices that had come to characterize the party itself as well as its style of governance. Within weeks of coming to power, it deposed governors of at least three states who were thought to have leanings towards the BJP. That perhaps could have been argued as being the prerogative of the party at the center.

However, the machinations since the recent state elections were undemocratic if not tasteless. Trying to force a party on a state – as the Congress did in Jharkhand – that clearly did not have the majority took us back to the days of Congress hegemony. Similarly, the manipulations that were apparent during the process of deciding the state government of Bihar were extra-democratic. They did not represent the voice of the electorate; rather, they presented the voice of the central government.

Unfortunately, during this entire process, voices that should have censured the Congress government for threatening to further weaken democracy have been spectacularly quiet.

The BJP itself, however, has had a similarly undemocratic form of structuring. While it has had to heed the voices of its coalition partners, it had worked (during its tenure) to assign governors who were effectively its own voice in the states. In that, the BJP shares much with the Congress.

After the elections, the electoral pundits were quick to point out the failure of the “India Shining” campaign and disenchantment with policies of economic liberalization. Some people pointed out that it was indeed ironic that the man who brought India to the regime of economic liberalization would become the PM owing to a vote against those economic policies. Dr. Manmohan Singh did make the right noises claiming he would provide a mixture of compassion with the dose of economic policies.

Seems that they were not much more than noises. The compassion was quite absent in days since the elections when hundreds of farmers committed suicide. It took that many before the Prime Minister felt compassionate enough to go and find out what the matter was. Perhaps, that was more compassionate that Shri Vajpayee – he did not find the opportunity to go visit those communities.

Patent laws that will wreck access to health care in India (a country that has among the worst access to health care, already) have been brought in through an ordinance. Democratic processes and public debate are largely absent within India. More cities are having their water resources privatized; while they do provide to a small section water which companies claim are pure (there is little testing since there are few laws), more and more of the population have their access to water cut off.

Anti-people policies of the Maharastra government have made more people homeless in Mumbai than the Tsunami destroyed in Tamil Nadu. And there is no aid pouring in for these people. This is the government that was supposed to have come to power based on a mandate that demanded greater concern for the poor.

While this Congress government has taken some significant steps vis-à-vis education, there has been little about this government in terms of rejuvenating democratic processes or strengthening an economy that is rapidly growing but where the distribution continues to get increasingly skewed and where democratic process are being further broken down.

So in this political merry go round, we are back to asking – Tweedle Dee Dee or Tweedle Dee Dum?

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