Banter on Marathi language on Navi Mumbai college WhatsApp group snowballs into fight; FIR lodged

NAVI MUMBAI: A 20-year-old student of BSc-IT from ICLES Motilal Jhunjhunwala College in Vashi was injured after being attacked by another classmate and three others over the issue of using Marathi language on their WhatsApp group.The injured student, Suraj Pawar, has filed an FIR against Faizan Naik and others for hitting him with a hockey stick on Tuesday morning, after an argument on the WhatsApp group.Pawar had stated in Marathi that there is a wedding in their family, and so all are invited. However, Naik took objection to the wedding invitation written in Marathi.Naik and others later assaulted Pawar with a hockey stick outside the college building.The Navi Mumbai based MNS leader, Gajanan Kale, also visited the Vashi police station after the FIR was lodged.Talking to TOI, Kale said: "A very minor issue of a wedding invite written in Marathi has caused a serious fight among college students. This should not have happened, and I feel that politicians like Nishikant Dubey and Abu Azmi are influncing youngsters, leading to such fights."Kale added: "I have urged Vashi police to somehow settle this matter amicably since both the parties involved are college students. They should not fight like this. There was no provocation in posting a wedding invite in Marathi."Meanwhile, the police officials said that they will follow the legal process in this assault case, as the accused is an adult (over 18 years age).The cops stated that just a light banter on the college WhatsApp group led to a serious clash between the students.So far, no one has been arrested.Another city based activist said that the recent viral videos of shopkeepers, security guards, bankers being slapped by MNS party workers for not speaking in Marathi language had also caused some tension in the society over the Marathi language issue.