A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has alleged that Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines, who was murder-ed along with his two sons in Odisha in 1999, was involved in conversion activities among tribal people.
During his submission on the debate on the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, Satya Pal Singh told parliament that Staines’ organization, the Evangelist Missionary Society, was converting tribal people to Christianity.
“There was uproar over Graham Staines. What happened to him and his two children was wrong,” the BJP leader from the northern State of Uttar Pradesh said on Sept. 21.
“But agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigations, Odisha Crime Branch and the Justice D.P. Wadhwa Commission con-cluded that tribals were being converted there. It was the biggest reason that people turned against Staines.
Suspected Hindu fanatics burned Staines and his sons Philip, 9, and Timothy, 7, inside their jeep on Jan. 23, 1999, in Odisha State’s Keonjhar district.
However, Singh’s remarks have saddened Christian leaders and communities in India.