The RSS and the sangh parivar that forms the foundation and cadres of the BJP are completely toxic, as is their habit of shunning intellectuals. Any kind of religious supremacy is a terrible thing, and when it comes from the majority; it's basically neo-fascism.

The conservative parties of the EU and UK are much more reasonable. And the social regressive bullshit the BJP tends to espouse are easily worse than the republicans.

Congress right now is definitely in a completely terrible shape - their state level wings are totally dysfunctional, I agree they are rudderless and always look up to the gandhi family, and there isn't much new blood. Corruption and opportunism makes them no better than most shitty state-level parties that are also mostly a band of thugs. But most of the policy paralysis and economic woes of UPA 2 were a result of global economic conditions and a lack of majority in parliament.

Basically to me Congress vs BJP is turd sandwich vs shit kebab. India needs a good party, something like the Democrats in America; but that's never going to happen.

Cow slaughter was banned in most states under Congress, no?

If any hindutva nonsense happened under the congress, it was almost certainly them bowing down to hindutva pressure. The Ram Mandir crap happened during Congress rule. But obviously perpetrated by hindu supremacists. The thing about the BJP is that every time they are in power, the far right gets emboldened. Very rarely do they do anything serious to condemn the far right.

People in India often tend to be hopelessly optimistic. Ultimately there are very deep rooted problems in the country, and almost all political parties end up being very similarly awful.