A transgender Indian and former PhD student, born in Tamil Nadu, has become the first person to be elected as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) despite being a foreign national without a permanent visa to live in the UK.Indian national Keo Manivannan won the seat of Edinburgh and Lothians East on Friday for the Scottish Greens, also becoming one of the first two transgender MSPs ever elected to Holyrood. “My name is Dr Q Manivannan, I am a transgender Tamil migrant, my pronouns are they/them,” they told their supporters.Their election sparked controversy. The immigration watchdog said: “Indian immigrant Dr Q Manivannan, who arrived in Britain on a student visa, has now become a politician in Scotland calling for the break-up of Britain.”Manivannan will now receive an annual salary of £77,000 (Rs 99,000) despite not having the right to work full-time. The MSP is crowdfunding £2,089 to raise money for a postgraduate visa which will allow them to stay for a further three years. Manivannan said they belonged to a lower caste background in Tamil Nadu and compared the “strong tones of resistance” in Tamil Nadu to Scotland. They said they joined the Green Party because of its support for Palestine.
According to the Daily Telegraph, they unfollowed Auschwitz on social media and defended the defacing of posters of Israeli hostages.They now have a student visa that allows them to work part-time. Last year, the Scottish National Party government introduced legislation allowing non-UK citizens to stand for Parliament if they take leave of any kind, including a short-term student visa. Previously an ILR was required.They studied liberal arts and humanities at OP Jindal Global University in Delhi before moving to Scotland in September 2021 to study at the University of St Andrews. A Scottish Greens spokesman said: “Keogh holds a valid visa and is entitled to work and live in Scotland, and is a Commonwealth citizen.”
