IPOH, May 4 — She is a kindergarten teacher, a wronged mother and a women’s icon.

And now, M. Indira Gandhi can add public speaker to that list.

The 43-year-old addressed a crowd of over 700 people at a Pakatan Harapan (PH) ceramah here tonight, in support of her lawyer and Ipoh Barat candidate, M. Kulasegaran.

While she did not touch on political matters, Indira spoke about her exhausting legal battle against the unilateral conversion of her three children: Tevi Darsiny, Karan Dinish and Prasana Diksa.

She also urged the crowd to back Kulasegaran — who she called "a hero”.

"He gave me and my children a second life. He was the only lawyer who was willing to take on my case,” she said to cheers and applause from the crowd who filled Dewan Kampung Baru in Buntong.

"Mr Kula and his team of lawyers frequently followed up with us through this difficult case, giving us support and motivation. He is our hero.”

Despite it being her first time addressing such a large crowd, Indira managed to hold their attention and appeared comfortable on stage.

She also joked that she had promised to repay Kulasegaran by cooking him mutton curry, but had never gotten around to doing it.

"I always tell him the goat is still growing so I can’t do it yet,” she quipped, eliciting laughter from the attendees.

Indira closed her speech — delivered in both Tamil and English — with a simple message for the crowd.

"I am not a political speaker so please bear with me as I can only talk about what he has done for us.

"For me, I hope all of you vote for Mr Kula,” she said, referring to Kulasegaran.  

Indira became an inspirational figure to many Malaysians during her exhausting legal battle, and was recently named as Malaysia’s nominee for the United States Department of State’s International Women of Courage award.

In January, the Federal Court nullified the conversion of Indira’s three children to Islam, which was done without her consent.

The landmark ruling also stated that only the civil courts have jurisdiction to decide such matters.

Throughout the process, Indira’s legal team was led by DAP vice-president Kulasegaran.

Besides Indira, the crowd also listened to speeches from Kulasegaran and former Bersih 2.0 chairman, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan.

Ambiga, who entered the hall to loud cheers and air horns, said she was confident of the Malaysian tsunami bringing change in the coming polls.

"This time, I see something different on the ground. The numbers have increased three-fold and this can save the country,” Ambiga said.

"Everyone talks about a Malay tsunami, but I can see a Malaysian tsunami. People are on the move because they are fed up.

"Give Pakatan Harapan chance, because if they fail we can remove them. That is the power of the people.”