Bravery award winner was 'misguiding' audience, alleges Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande

Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande on Monday alleged that National Bravery Award winner Zen Sadavarte was 'misguiding' the public while she was giving a speech after receiving the award here on Sunday.

Responding to Sadavarte's allegations that she was interrupted by Shiv Sena workers during her speech, Kayande said: "I intervened when she started saying that transgenders do not have quota. I explained to her that it is not so and that transgenders do have quota and that she was giving wrong information to the audience."

"People in the audience were not able to understand what she was speaking, that's why she was asked to speak in Hindi or Marathi. She said 'I cannot speak in Hindi' also," she continued.

The Shiv Sena leader alleged that Sadavarte appeared to be 'in the mood to create a ruckus'. "We understood that she was derailing from the issue and she was in the mood to create a ruckus. I noticed that some relative of hers was shooting (the incident on camera)."

Kayande stressed that even though Sadavarte was "creating a scene", the party leaders spoke to her "politely" and added that perhaps the girl was misguided. "I think she is misguided. It was not the platform as she was not invited to give a speech. But still we allowed her to speak for almost 15 minutes," she said.

Sadavarte had on Monday alleged that her speech was interrupted by Shiv Sena leaders as she did not 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 had told ANI.

"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 transgenders," 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.