Overview

• On July 16, Fisheries and Ports Development Minister Nitesh Rane urged madrasas to teach Marathi instead of Urdu and for the Islamic call to prayer to be delivered in Marathi, warning that “otherwise all one gets from there is a gun.”
• NCP leader Shashikant Shinde criticized Rane’s remarks as unnecessary and said such issues should be brought before the state cabinet rather than used to stoke tensions.
• AIMIM’s Waris Pathan and Congress’s Amin Patel accused the minister of communal provocation, noting that madrasas already teach multiple languages and that the Azaan is traditionally delivered in Arabic.
• Opposition parties have demanded a formal government review of Rane’s comments, warning that they risk inflaming religious and linguistic divisions ahead of local elections.
• No disciplinary action has been announced against the minister as the broader debate over language policy and regional identity remains unresolved.