Pune college students tiff turns into a Marathi-North Indian divide

Anurag Deepchand Kumar

Over petty issues of attending lectures and mass bunking, Pune-based college students got into a fight, which degenerated into a Marathi and non-Marathi issue. On Friday, a 20-year-old engineering student, Anurag Deepchand Kumar, who hails from Bihar, was asked not to attend a lecture by another local student at Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering.

According to senior inspector Vishnu Pawar, "The boy threatened Anurag not to attend the lecture as non-attendance by the whole class would lead to no class." After the initial altercation, Kumar was allegedly beaten up by a gang of five on Saturday within the college premises. Kumar approached the Bharati Vidhyapeeth police station and registered a criminal case. The police have booked a case of assault. After the attack, Kumar was rushed to Bharati Hospital & Research Centre, where he was treated for injuries on his head, hand, leg and toes.

While police claim it was a petty fight and had no connection to any regional bias, students, especially from North India, tell a different story. A friend of Kumar's, on condition of anonymity, said, "The fight was petty, but the local student raised the issue of Maharashtrian and non-Maharashtrians. This is not just about one incident. As North Indians, we face this bias on a day-to-day basis, as few local students abuse us regularly."

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