O n September 23, as Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan stepped out of Sitapur jail after 23 months of incarceration, hundreds of supporters greeted him with slogans and sweets. Having fought a prolonged battle to get the 104 cases against him quashed or be granted bail, Mr. Khan seemed like a patriarch in the autumn of his political career. Gone was the untrammelled roar, the biting sarcasm of his heydays. Even as his supporters raised the slogan ‘Inquilab aaya (Revolution is here)’, he simply waved at them. As he talked slowly of the imprisonment having kept him away from the vicissitudes of the political world, and the need for medical recuperation, revolution was the farthest thing from his mind. Only once did he allow himself a flashback by raising a fist at his supposed opponents

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