A spectre is falling across the metros of the Indian Republic. It is a menace that is sinister in its conception and tragic in its consequences. The virtues of tolerance, freedom of expression, the right to privacy, the right to joy, the basic human impulse to feel alive and in doing so experiment with and experience the virtues and vices that make us human, are all under assault. One could be forgiven for assuming that the Indian state is at war with its best and brightest living in its metros. And its chosen instrument of waging this war is the police. If ‘I am Anna’ was the dominant meme of 2011 for India’s conscientious and concerned citizens, ‘I am Dhoble’ appears to be the comeback by the Indian state.

It seems to be the reality of policing in our metros. Come nightfall, and across our metros our men and women in khaki spread out on a sacred mission as shock troops of the new moral order. In this order, corruption and debauchery in the political and administrative arena is routinely ignored: It has to be, for it sustains and nourishes the system from which our jackboots derive the spring in their collective steps. Anywhere else, the challenges of terrorism, Naxalism, ethnic and communal violence, crimes against women and weaker sections would be seen as challenges enough for the police. But not us, we in the IPS have a weltanschauung that is defined in terms of might is right. It is a world view where freedom of expression, experimentation with choice in matters of sexuality, clothing, music and other forms of art and culture, use of legal and illegal intoxicants are seen as the biggest threats to the unity and integrity of India. A constabulary largely drawn from the rural peasantry, poorly educated, ill-trained and then dumped in inhuman working and living conditions, imbued with a deeply casteist, communalist and gender-biased outlook, that we do nothing to correct, is coming into contact with an educated, affluent and globalised citizenry. The result is a profound culture shock, unprovoked aggression and abuse of authority, stemming from feelings of envy, insecurity and ignorance.

ACP Vasant Dhoble is neither an original nor a pioneer. He is simply the most commonly occurring expression of the most dominant and destructive strands of the genetic makeup of the Indian Police. Sadly for all of us in the Indian Police, the old order changeth, and how.

The last 20 years have seen the emergence of an affluent, articulate, aware and globally inter-connected generation that is demanding strange things like rule of law, equality before law and a law that itself must be held to higher universal standards of rights and human dignity. They actually expect the police to serve as servants of the law with total public accountability. For us in the IPS, and for our bureaucratic and political masters, this is all terribly confusing and disorienting. Nobody told us.

In Mumbai and many other places, the police leadership takes the defence that it is merely upholding the law as it stands. This is humbug. There is a plethora of laws against corruption, against incitement to ethnic violence, against disruption of public order and destruction of public and private property. I wish we paid even a fraction of attention to the above laws compared to the speed and efficiency with which we went about shutting Mumbai’s dance bars in the past or the alacrity with which we are shutting down pubs and restaurants and nightclubs across our metros these days. The police leadership of this country, me included, loves to blame the politicians, the bureaucrats and the media for many of our failings.

But by letting loose the likes of Dhoble on an essentially law-abiding citizenry, and then hiding behind the fig leaf of the law, when truly urgent and significant policing challenges are woefully neglected, represents a criminal abdication of responsibility on part of the IPS and fools no one.

This outbreak of moral policing, totally devoid of a moral compass, in our metros is at first sight both baffling and outrageous in equal measure. But on sober reflection, it makes perfect sense. Our citizens believe with justification that these drives are simply an attempt by the police leadership to increase avenues of extortion and to divert attention from our more serious professional failings.

What we have gained in authority and forced obedience we have lost manifold in terms of trust and legitimacy. Perhaps the powers- that-be would consider replacing the P for Police in the IPS with a D for Dhoble. I am Dhoble. Indeed.

The author is a serving IPS officer. These are his personal views.