New Delhi, Oct. 14 -- There is a newspaper photograph from 2011 that still annoys me. That is how I know it was not my morning cortisol but Anna Hazare. The image is of the activist waving goodbye. His death fast in Delhi against corruption was over; politicians had reassured him they will act against their own corruption; satisfied, the saint was going back to his village in triumph.

As I remember it, on the same front-page was an image of Manmohan Singh, then India's prime minister. Unlike an unelected revolutionary, he couldn't just wave and go home. No matter where he went, he would still be PM. He would still be held accountable.

Hazare said he won't contest elections because he would lose, and that to win them one had to get filth...