Mumbai: National Bravery Award winner Zen Sadavarte said that her speech was interrupted by Shiv Sena leaders at an event organised here on Women's Day as she didn't know how to speak Marathi.
"When I spoke in Hindi and English, everybody got the message. But I don't know what happened to the people on the stage. They started getting angry and attacked me. The panel on the stage consisted of Shiv Sena leaders," Sadavarte said.
"I talked about several issues that affect India, things that are going wrong in the country. Like, mid-day meals are not given to children on Saturdays and Sundays. Those are the issues I talked about. I talked about horizontal reservation to be given to transgender," Sadavarte said.
"I don't know what happened to the MLAs and representatives of Shiv Sena who were present there. They started humiliating me. They started lying on stage that we have given reservation and claiming that they were the state and knew better," she said.
Sadavarte said that she had the right to speak in whichever language she wishes.
"They started exploiting my right to expression. I have the right to speak in English and in Hindi as both are union languages. They told me that 'if you want to live in India, you need to learn Marathi'. It is my right to speak the language I wish to speak," she added.
Inputs from ANI
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