BJYM Torch March at Varanasi Congress Office Ends in Standoff; Police Open Inquiry

A political dispute over “Vande Mataram” reached the Congress office in Maidagin on Sunday evening, where more than 50 Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha workers arrived in a torch procession and sang the national song outside the building. Congress members came to the entrance, police formed a barrier between the groups and a loud standoff continued for roughly half an hour.

The BJYM group had assembled near the divisional hospital at Kabirchaura before moving towards the office. Its members said they were protesting what they described as disrespect towards “Vande Mataram.” Congress leaders rejected that charge and objected to a rival political organisation carrying torches to their premises. Officers kept Congress members inside the gate while the marchers remained on the street, preventing direct contact as slogans were exchanged.

After the BJYM workers left, Congress members moved to the Rajiv Gandhi statue at Maidagin crossing and began a sit-in seeking an FIR. Metropolitan Congress president Raghvendra Chaubey alleged that some protesters tried to set the office on fire with torches and threw stones. BJYM representatives denied wrongdoing and framed the march as a patriotic demonstration. Those competing accounts have not been independently resolved.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Vijay Pratap Singh said the matter would be examined, according to the local report. That inquiry should rely on original video from police cameras, shops and journalists rather than edited clips circulating online. It must establish where the torches were carried, whether any flame touched the property, whether objects were thrown and whether police directions were disobeyed. If damage occurred, it should be documented before repairs erase evidence.

Political groups have a right to demonstrate, sing and criticise one another. That right does not extend to threatening an occupied office or manufacturing a confrontation at a narrow public site. Organisers also carry responsibility for the route, crowd size and objects brought to a protest. Police, for their part, must apply the same public-order standard regardless of which party is marching and record any restriction placed on the group inside the building.

Maidagin is already a busy junction linking markets and the old city. A sudden gathering can disrupt residents, traders and emergency movement even when no serious violence follows. Advance notice, designated protest space and a clear end time would reduce the chance that symbolic politics becomes a street fight.

The immediate confrontation ended without a reported serious injury. The next test is whether Varanasi Police can issue a factual account that addresses both sides’ allegations. Until then, claims of arson, stone-throwing or deliberate provocation should be attributed to those making them, not repeated as settled fact.