The ancien régime is alive and vocal. A statement issued by four leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party who have now been made figures of the past by Narendra Modi made it clear that the latter cannot take his leadership for granted or assume that he has a united party behind him. The cracks are now obvious. The criticism being voiced cannot be set aside as utterances of four disgruntled old men. What is also evident is that L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha are not just speaking for themselves, but are actually articulating views shared by large sections of the members and supporters of the BJP. These views have acquired a salience in the aftermath of the debacle in Bihar. In sum, the criticism is directed against the growing trend of centralization in the decision making of the BJP. Since he became prime minister with an overwhelming majority in the Lok Sabha, Mr Modi has taken over the reins of the party. All decisions are now taken by him, by his principal lieutenant, Amit Shah, and by another steadfast loyalist, Arun Jaitley. The dominance of this trio has rendered irrelevant all other leaders within the BJP. The election campaign in Bihar was led and managed by Mr Modi and Mr Shah. In defeat, however, their cup-bearer, Mr Jaitley, has spoken of collective responsibility. This is a bizarre exhibition of double standards: in victory, credit to and applause for the trio; in defeat, the blame falls on the collective, the party.

The members of the ancien régime have refused to accept this shameless passing of the buck. They have demanded a full review of the defeat, a review to be carried out by a group other than the trio. More fundamentally, they have also raised the question of the emasculation of the party. Mr Modi's gelding of the party is a function of his dominance that has led him to disregard - at times, even to smother - opinions that are different from his own. Within the party, Messrs Advani, Joshi et al, who at one time nurtured Mr Modi, are now victims of Mr Modi's intolerance. Outside the party, there are targets and victims of the same intolerance wielded in Mr Modi's name and through his tacit sanction. What Mr Modi is being forced to hear now is the articulation of two very different kinds of protests against intolerance. He will be risking very high stakes if he were to treat these protests as "manufactured dissent".