The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Australia’s high commissioner to India, Philip Green, on Tuesday (January 23) took to X (formerly Twitter) to remember the brutal murder of Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his young sons in Orissa 25 years ago. The murder was committed by Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh and his men.
“This week marks the 25th anniversary of the deaths of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his sons in east India in 1999. We remember Graham’s selfless work with leprosy patients there,” Green said.
In one of the most infamous attacks faced by Christians in India, Staines and his two young sons – one 10 and the other seven years old – were burnt alive in early 1999, in Odisha’s Keonjhar district. Dara Singh and his associates were given the life sentence for the crime.
The accused alleged that Staines was conducting ‘forced conversions’, but a government-appointed commission found no evidence of any such activity.
Christian groups and activists have highlighted how everyday forms of violence against the community in India has been on rise, especially under the Bharatiya Janata Party’s rule. As The Wire has reported, data collected by these groups have shown a four-fold increase in number of recorded cases between 2012 and 2022.
According to a report in Economic Times that quotes unnamed sources, Green’s remark has “intrigued” India. “A government insider who did not wish to be identified said the ‘motivation’ behind the statement was being studied. The insider hinted that Green may have been ‘motivated by a section’ of the Australian establishment that is ‘akin to the Canadian ruling party’. There may be a desire in certain Australian quarters to follow Canada’s righteousness and they may have influenced the mission here, the person said,” the report noted, referring to the icy relations between India and Canada after the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist, which Canada says was allegedly planned by Indian government agencies.