By Amandeep Bhupal

1. We should be more reflective of India’s diversity

Inquiries like ‘what is important to the Indian voter?’ or the ‘young’ don’t have a solitary answer in a nation as assorted as our own. It is measurably difficult to sum anything up for over a billion people.

Rural versus urban, class, and territorial qualifications, without a doubt impact the political talk, bringing about the numerous stories of what constitutes India. The part of our political talk isn’t to bring together these stories — however to stay discerning of this decent variety, and open to negligible voices and groups.

2. Educating and making people aware is a must

Educate people around you about the ills of voting based on caste/religion. You shouldn’t thrust your ideology onto them, rather only the fact that while voting other things should be given priority from caste/religion.

3. More transparency would go a long way to help us

Transparency would allow the Indian people to understand how a law that potentially affects them dramatically is applied in practice. At present, the Indian government is denying them that opportunity. This makes it impossible for people to challenge censorship in the courts if they believe it is inappropriate. While Parliament’s every day antics are communicated live, there are numerous official procedures that still happen behind close entryways. A case of this is standing panels, which exhort the legislature on milestone enactment before they are talked about in Parliament. This is one of only a handful couple of discussions that guide pre-legislative meeting. Making such verbal confrontations visible to the general population can increase the value of people in general talk.

4. Making Parliament more interactive

Web 2.0 and social media are changing the conventional ruler-subject paradigm of politics — more engagement is possible between voters and representatives today.

But to make our political discourse truly interactive, political parties and politicians should not use these platforms as yet another vehicle to propagate their agenda. The challenge is to create more regular and constructive exchanges between the electorate and decision-makers.

5. We should be more respectful of differing opinions

“The moment I disagree with you, I will not listen,” says the news anchor to the panelists on his debate. If you were part of ‘debate club’ in school, the first rule you would have learnt is ‘to hear out your opponent before making a counterargument.’ Switch on Lok Sabha TV or any television news channel, and you will quickly realise that this rule simply does not apply.

Level headed discussions are regularly diminished to a catastrophe — from parliamentarians walking to the well of the House, to writers shrieking as loud as possible — with everybody needing to be heard, however not hearing the other.