Tension briefly flared in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, after a group described by residents as Hindutva workers was driven out of a locality when their attempt to question and allegedly intimidate Muslim shop owners met with unexpected resistance from local inhabitants.
According to accounts circulating alongside a video that surfaced on Wednesday, February 18, the group had entered a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood and approached several meat shops, claiming to be officials and demanding that the proprietors produce identification documents.
Their assertions of authority, however, were met not with acquiescence but with scepticism, as residents gathered and insisted that the visitors first establish their own credentials.
In the video, which gained traction across social media platforms, voices can be heard repeatedly demanding, “ID dikha (Show your ID),” as the situation grew increasingly charged. The chorus of insistence, firm yet devoid of overt violence, appeared to unsettle the group, who eventually withdrew from the colony amid mounting scrutiny.
The exchange, though brief, underscored a palpable shift in local dynamics, where residents refused to submit to what they perceived as extrajudicial interference.
Eyewitness accounts suggest that the Hindutva workers had sought to inspect documents at Muslim-owned establishments under the ostensible pretext of verification. Yet, in the absence of demonstrable authority, their demands were rebuffed, and the neighbourhood’s inhabitants stood resolute, asserting their right to conduct lawful business without intimidation.
The episode has elicited strong reactions online, where commentators have framed the resistance as emblematic of a broader civic awakening. Some described it as a corollary to the widely publicised actions of Deepak Kumar, also known as Mohammed Deepak, whose intervention in an earlier confrontation in Uttarakhand had drawn national attention.
In that incident, workers affiliated with Bajrang Dal demanded that a Muslim shopkeeper, Mohammed Wakil, remove the name “Baba” from his establishment, prompting Deepak to intercede and advocate communal amity.
Since then, Deepak has been lauded in several quarters as a symbol of interfaith solidarity and moral fortitude, with supporters portraying his actions as a repudiation of sectarian coercion. The Varanasi incident, many argue, reflects a similar impulse among ordinary citizens to resist what they consider vigilantism cloaked in ideological fervour.
While no official complaint had been publicly detailed at the time of reporting, the incident has rekindled debate over the limits of citizen activism and the propriety of self-appointed enforcers seeking to regulate commerce along communal lines.