LONDON: An Indian doctoral student from Tamil Nadu, who moved to Scotland on a student visa just four years ago, has turned a local election victory into a wider debate on immigration, identity and representation in UK politics.
Q Manivannan, who identifies as non-binary and claims to represent “diversity in power”, is among the newest members of the Scottish Parliament – also referred to as Holyrood.
The PhD student was elected to the devolved Scottish Parliament on the Edinburgh and Lothians East regional list for the pro-independence Scottish Greens. The results for the elections held last week were announced on May 9.
“My name is Dr Q Manivannan, I am a transgender Tamil immigrant, my pronouns are they/them," said Manivannan, standing among his supporters.
“I am to some in this country everything that the hateful despise and I am standing here as your MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) now with care. They say politics is the art of the possible, a politics of care I would say expands what is possible for everyone left behind, pushed out or never invited in,” the Indian student said.
Born in Tamil Nadu, Manivannan moved to Scotland in 2021 on a student visa to pursue a course in international relations at the University of Andrews.
Ahead of the election victory, the Indian national was in the process of online crowdfunding for a Graduate Visa, which grants doctoral students the right to live and work in the UK for three years beyond their student visa.
"Every barrier placed before me with the Greens was the reason also that we pushed further. This is what diversity looks like in power," said Manivannan, who uses the pronouns they/them.
Their election has drawn criticism from anti-immigration voices over rules that allow some foreign nationals living in Scotland to contest elections.
“Dr Manivannan may be a nice young person. But I don’t want to live in a country where people on student visas can become elected representatives to national parliaments," said Robert Jenrick, former Tory minister and now shadow chancellor in the anti-immigration Reform UK.
The Indian student’s MSP candidature was possible as a Commonwealth national under a rule change that allows foreigners on even short-term visas and without indefinite leave to remain (ILR) or those with permanent residency to be eligible for elections in Scotland.
“Politicians should commit to removing the automatic right of Commonwealth citizens to vote in UK elections, and the ability of non-British citizens to stand in British elections,” stated Migration Watch, an independent pressure group campaigning for immigration curbs.
Co-leader of the Scottish Greens, Gillian Mackay, told reporters that the party would be supporting Manivannan through the process of a new visa application.
“There will have to be a renewal of Q’s visa. That is a process they will have to complete over the session of Parliament,” Greens said.
Manivannan's campaign pamphlet describes him as a politics PhD student, arts worker, co-convenor of Scottish Green Party’s Palestine Solidarity Group, former United Nations health and disability worker and immigrant.
“If my mere existence causes this much trouble, I’m excited to see how much my words will,” Manivannan said in a social media post after the election results on Saturday.
The Scottish Greens said the Scottish Parliament had "rightly and explicitly" chosen to permit people like the "queer Tamil immigrant” to contest the May 7 elections to “bring a politics of care and compassion to Holyrood”.
"Q is on a valid visa with the right to work and live in Scotland, and is a Commonwealth citizen. The UK’s visa system is needlessly expensive and hostile, and we are determined to replace it with one that welcomes people with care rather than throwing up hurdles and barriers," a party spokesperson said.
The leftist Scottish Greens made significant gains in last week’s election, in Scotland and in local councils across England.