NEW DELHI: A week after a delegation of Christian leaders from the NCR said President Droupadi Murmu had “regretted her inability to avert the killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in 1999”, Rashtrapati Bhavan sources reportedly said the President’s remarks had been “misconstrued”.
Official sources are reported to have said a delegation led by Delhi Archbishop Anil Couto had sought an appointment with President Murmu for a courtesy call. “During the interaction, the delegation handed over a memorandum to the President on attacks against Christians,” officials today said, adding that such courtesy calls do not normally yield press statements.
A written query to a top President House official in this regard, however, went unanswered.
The Christian delegation met President Murmu on April 13, and in a press statement thereafter said: “The President recalled the tragic loss of Graham Staines, an Australian missionary who was murdered along with his two young sons in 1999, who she was a neighbour with (in Odisha). She expressed regret in her inability at the time to go and avert his tragic loss. She said she has read reports about the targeting of Christians but believes that these attacks have been perpetrated only by a handful of people.”
The delegation submitted a memorandum to the President, flagging “steep increase in incidents of violence against Christians”. “She recalled the service of the church in Jharkhand and Odisha,” the statement had said.