Sri Lankan Tamil votes in Tiruchy for the first time
On Friday, Nalini Kirubakaran, a 38-year-old resident of the Tiruchy rehabilitation camp for Sri Lankan Tamils, became the first Indian citizen from the Kottapattu camp to be granted naturalization to vote in a general election.
On election day, Nalini had a dream come true as she never imagined that cameras would follow her from the refugee camp to the voting place at MM Middle School, which is close to the airport, where she cast her ballot.
“I can’t put it into words how I feel. Casting my first vote, I feel like I’ve moved beyond my history,” Nalini said.
After her application for an Indian passport was turned down by a regional passport office in 2021, she had to fight her way through the legal system for two years in order to go from being a refugee in her birth country to being the first person in her community to be granted the right to vote. Nalini proved her Indian citizenship in front of the Madras High Court in September 2022.
In the Mandapam camp for Sri Lankan refugees in Rameswaram, Nalini was born in 1986. Because her birth year occurred between January 26, 1950, and July 1, 1987—a timeframe that qualified persons born in India for automatic naturalization as Indians—she was awarded citizenship.
She presently lives in Kottapattu Camp since her family is not yet citizens of India. Nalini wants the other camp refugees to have the same privileges.
