Honourable Madam President,

Thanks for your Easter Message, which was filled with wishes for peace and harmony.

As the functioning head of the Indian national family, you have uttered words that carry weight and are well taken by us Christians who are citizens of this great nation. They are also noted by the media and other concerned citizens. Your measured words also transmit ripples beyond our national boundaries and into the world.

Well said, madam; the need of the hour is peace and harmony in this nation, which is torn by visceral hatred, religious fanaticism and majoritarian bulldozing.

When you ascended to the highest seat of honour, the Presidential chair, the nation had high hopes for you. Rightly so. The citizens were proud to see a tribal person from humble origins was chosen to head the nation. The downtrodden, the marginalised, the Dalits, and the tribals facing the meandering course of displacement, migration, illiteracy and poverty believed in your capability to stand for their human and Constitutional rights. They hoped that you, among other things, would be a voice to the voiceless.

The nation faces burning problems, you know very well. The way legislators and political loudmouths are spitting out visceral hatred against minority communities has reached Himalayan proportions.

The bulldozing performance of some state governments to target, pull down, and pulverise the homes and establishments of selected community members is an insult to humanity. The world is laughing at us. Do the reverberations of such quizzical laughter ever penetrate the thick walls of your august office?

When Manipur burned with hatred against particular minority communities and is still burning, how much of your maternal emotions and even human feelings gave utterance to soothe and console the victims? The nation stood in silence and watched the terror of inhumanity unfold in Manipur and hoped and prayed that your authoritative and human intervention would restore the wayward government in its tracks. You are the best person to tell the nation what your response was.

Please do not take it as arrogance and petulance to give vent to our thoughts and present them before you. We find it imperative to do so because you are our family head. On your door, we knock because all other doors are banged shut against us. The government has its own agenda. Its actions and inactions are driven by its own compulsions that do not match the aspirations of the common man or woman.

Apart from Manipur, the central Indian states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and your home state, Odisha, are signs of monumental mockery for unleashing terror on Christians. Even to the point of denying the burial of the dead!

Do not such horror stories reach you through your news-feed agencies? Are you not affected by the persecution of Christians and the destruction of Christian churches, shrines and statues? Why are pastors, priests, and nuns who serve the rural poor for human progress and development made victims of false cases, police atrocity and state-sponsored terrorism? The answer is in your court, Madam President.

The minority communities, including your own kith and kin - tribal communities - are living under fear and peacelessness. Ask yourself if just a formal wish that "peace and harmony may prevail" is enough? Does it wash away the guilt of silence when heralds of death and agents of terror stalk the land and play out their naked dance?

We hear people saying that the President of India is there to sign on the dotted line prepared by the ruling party. We refuse to believe it because the President is the Constitutional head of the nation and not an agent of the ruling party.

On your ascending the august office, you have taken a Constitutional oath, which reads as follows:

I, Droupadi Murmu, do swear in the name of God/solemnly affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of President (or discharge the functions of the President) of India and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law and that I will devote myself to the service and well-being of the people."

We, the people of this nation, take your oath seriously and believe that you have taken it equally seriously and will function with the dignity and fairness that your office demands.

Please do not disappoint us. We Christians are a force to reckon with when it comes to serving the poor in remote rural areas in hospitals, leprosy asylums, social service centres, etc. Our city-centred educational institutions are well-taken advantage of by the majority community for their children's education and training. Yet, we, our priests, nuns, and the staff are targeted and falsely accused of conversions and attacked mercilessly by hooligans and even by the police. It is in the midst of all this you wish us peace and harmony.

If you mean it seriously, tell those hooligans and the police that police raj and goonda raj will not be tolerated. Tell erring governments that enough and enough and that there is a human and legal way of functioning. That bulldozing the sacred Constitution will not be tolerated.

Act madam with determination. Let truth and justice be your breastplate. Let not posterity ever write that there was a President whose wisdom was silence, whose exercise was inaction and whose allegiance was suspect.

Do not disappoint the nation, madam. You have a lot of goodwill. You are a learned person. You are the President of the Indian nation. Act decisively for the good of all. God Bless!