Maharashtra Navnirman Sena takes on Airtel over Gujarati in its local ads

Airtel has promised to take down all the commercials soon. Representation Pic

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Wednesday protested against the use of the Gujarati language in local Airtel advertisements. The protest came as other incidents of Marathi people being sidelined have come to the fore, including a Marathi woman in Mulund being denied office space and another incident wherein a Gujarati businessman forcefully evacuated a shop owned by a Marathi woman in Kandivli.

There was already a controversy in Mumbai over shops having Gujarati signboards. Now the MNS has taken an aggressive stance because of Airtel's love for Gujarati. MNS student union leader Akhil Chitre, and office bearer Satish Narkar, along with MNS workers protested outside the Bharti Airtel company office in Malad West.

A tight security detail was also deployed by the local police to prevent any untoward incident. Meanwhile, the protestors insisted on talking to officials of Airtel, which led to an altercation with the police for some time. The MNS office bearers then asked company officials to issue an apology statement and demanded that the advertisements in the Gujarati language be removed.

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"If Bharti Airtel is using such marketing strategies to attract other language speakers, when the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena appeals to Marathi speakers and they start porting out, the loss suffered by Airtel India will be more than the benefit gained from attracting other language speakers in Maharashtra," Chitre said. He also warned that if Airtel didn't agree and decided to take the fight forward, the company would be responsible for any property loss at their galleries.

According to Chitre, the Maharashtra Navanirman Telecom Sena, in collaboration with the Maharashtra Navanirman Vidyarthi Sena, has already shot off a letter to the Airtel India Mumbai office in this regard. Following the protest, Airtel officials have taken down some advertisements and promised to take down the remaining ones as soon as possible. They will also issue a public apology from their management.