Congress cites The Hindu report to target Centre over Great Nicobar project, calls Modi government ‘indifferent’

The Congress on Saturday (January 24, 2026) accused the Union government of pushing through the “ecologically disastrous” Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project despite legal challenges and widespread professional objections, alleging that the Narendra Modi-led dispensation remained “indifferent” to environmental and tribal concerns.

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh shared The Hindu news report on X, which cited members of the Tribal Council in Little and Great Nicobar alleging that the district administration was pressuring them to “surrender their ancestral land” for the project.

“Yet another example of how the ecologically disastrous Great Nicobar project is being bulldozed through. Petitions are also being heard in the Calcutta High Court and the National Green Tribunal. Professionals have voiced their concerns. But nothing is making a difference to an indifferent Modi government,” Mr. Ramesh said.

Responding to allegations of coercion of tribal communities, the former Environment Minister said, “This is unacceptable and shows how the Great Nicobar project is being bulldozed through. It is an ecological disaster.”

He noted that he had repeatedly raised concerns in a series of letters to the Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi has also criticised the project in an opinion piece in The Hindu, describing it as a “planned misadventure” that poses an existential threat to indigenous communities and makes a “mockery of all legal and deliberative processes”.

The Union government, however, had defended the project, with Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav stating that all statutory clearances were in place and that the initiative was vital for national development.