The Dreadful Quest for Unlimited Power

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The quote by John Acton conveys the importance of a strong opposition in a democracy and to some extend presents the dreadful nature of any dictatorship. However, the leaders still tend to garner limitless power by all possible means. Most nations would not want that Beijing governance model exported to other countries, or even expect its leaders to take a lead. But the most dreadful thing has happened. President Donald Trump has taken a lead and has taken a call to. While the Communist Party’s proposal to remove the limit of two five-year terms – meaning President Xi Jinping could stay in power indefinitely – has sparked criticism and fears of a return to strongman politics, Trump said he was fine with the idea. He even suggested the United States could “give that a shot someday”. China’s Communist Party has cleared the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely, by announcing that it intends to abolish term limits on the presidency, a considerable change in its decade-old rules. The rule that was enacted to prevent the country from returning to the days when Chairman Mao was shown cultish submission and conformance. Chairman Mao ruled China from 1949 till his death. The Constitution now limits President Xi Jinping, who became president in 2013, to two terms in that office, amounting to 10 years. But the party leadership has proposed removing the line that says the president and vice president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms.” By getting this resolution cleared President Xi Jinping has overturned the rules of succession in Chinese politics and has given a signal to the nation that he wants to stay in office well past 2023. What may make President Xi Jinping stronger today could make his party weaker in years to come.
However, a bigger threat has emerged from the United States. “He’s now president for life. And he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday,” President Donald Trump said to his supporters in Florida amongst cheers and applause from them. Though the media from US claims that President Trump said so in a closed door meeting with his supporters. Nevertheless, this could be one of the scariest things coming from the leader who has been democratically elected and has had a series of controversies following him. Also, it is not a secret any longer that President Donald Trump is one of those rare Presidents of a democratic country who has heaped praises on authoritarian dictators. Leaders from Turkey and Egypt have won applause from President Trump. Not to forget Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been treated with kid gloves by President Donald Trump even as the US intelligence authorities have confirmed that Russia was behind an elaborate attempt to meddle in the 2016 elections. Even though, President Trump doesn’t have numbers to move a similar resolution as done by President Xi Ping, it is a sign of lust for power by a leader who is not being hailed after having being elected by the voters. Any move to ensure an unending rule of any democratic leaders is an attempt towards a personal legalized dictatorship and personal domination of the party and the government.
Similar situation where the domination of the ruling party, and its access to the muscle and money power is being organized in a manner where the opposition is being reduced to naught. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to fulfill his slogan of making “India without Congress”, has adopted all possible means to take the saffron to all nooks and corner of India even if it amounts to having tie up with parties who have poles apart ideology. BJP’s alliance with PDP in Jammu & Kashmir is unholy alliance between two diametrically opposed parties for the sake of power. PDP is known to have taken an open stance in favor of Afzal Guru, who carried out an attack on Indian Parliament. For the election results declared for the three states in North East India. It has been able to topple a 20 year old rule of CPIM in Tripura by fielding a majority of ex Congress leaders from the state. BJP enacted a coup in Bihar and joined hands with Nitish Kumar while both the parties were dragger drawn before and after the elections for almost one and half year. It managed to form government in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya what can be termed as “back door entry” by carrying out horse trading.
From President Xi Jinping to President Donald Trump to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the quest for unending and limitless power is quiet evident. We need to acknowledge what John Adams said way back in 1788, “It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.” The same holds true for the three leaders who have been working to grab power left, right and centre are doing so to overcome their weakness and to conquer their fear as defeat is something that is not easy for them to digest.