Politics should learn lessons about ethics and economics of people's welfare and use the power it has gained, towards the common goal of purity, peace and prosperity, says Rajyogi Brahmakumar Nikunj ji

According to the well-established political practise, every elected government in a country has to present its annual budget to the legislature to which it is responsible. Following this practise, the government of India also has been presenting its annual Budget, year after year. This time, the government presented it after curiosity had been raised about a new approach on account of statements issued by the Prime Minister with regards to the pandemic situation worldwide. After the budget was presented to the Parliament, different political parties and different sections of the society reacted to it in a varied manner. While offering their comments, most of the political parties or persons generally recognise that the budget proposals presented by the party in power are based on the socio-economic philosophy, politico-economic policy and fiscal strategy of the leaders of the party, particularly its finance minister and the Prime Minister.

It is, however, hardly recognised that the socio-economic philosophy or the fiscal policy, in turn, is based on the philosophy of life, the world-view and the system of ethical values reflected by the Constitution of the party or made manifest in the aims and objects of the party as interpreted by its present leaders in the light of their world-view or their conception of personal and social ethics. Thus, a budget presented by the finance minister of a political party, having a particular ideology, will be formulated with their party ethics, philosophy of life, the economic interpretation of history and socialistic view of society and also of the means of production and distribution. This will further be influenced by the finance minister's worldview and his/her personal choice of an idol or leader as his guiding star from among all the luminaries.

Compared to this, the budget presented by the finance minister of some other country in some other continent will have a different philosophy of life and society and a different ethical and world-view as its motivating force. Considered in this light, it can be understood that economics or finance cannot be divorced from the philosophy of life and system of ethics, or, to put it in more clear words, it cannot be alienated from spirituality and morality. It, therefore, brings out the necessity of having a proper world-view, a correct philosophy of life and a right ethical system. This is as much in one's own interest as it is beneficial for society as a whole and is of added significance if an individual is devoted to social service.

In the context of the budget and the formulation of the financial policy of a nation, it becomes all the more important than the one who has his mind anchored in moral values and has cultivated a spiritual outlook, he alone should formulate the budget for he alone would be able to formulate one that reflects such values as compassion for the weak, and overall welfare of the country. Today we are witnessing the fall of many governments, empires, kingships, democracies across the world. The reason behind their collapse is that the values and aims of both the leaders and people are not fair.

The seed of difficulties in our system is the lack of awareness and practice of values such as cooperation, honesty, serving, self-examination and self-discipline. This is mainly because since childhood we have been taught to compete fiercely to succeed rather than to develop individual talents to complement each other; to possess and accumulate more as a means of security rather than sharing our resources and realising that security comes when there is unity, a sense of belonging among everyone in the society. This ignorance towards values brings sufferings to humanity due to which vices are created bringing further misery to our lives. It would thus be wrong for politics to use religion, culture and economics for selfish ends or to satisfy one's hunger for power. Instead, it should learn its lessons from the ethics and economics of people's welfare and use the power it has gained, towards the common goal of purity, peace and prosperity.