Congress leader Rahul Gandhi meets a delegation of tribal leaders from Great Nicobar Island along with Adivasi Congress leaders. Photo: Facebook/Rahul Gandhi
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met a delegation of tribal leaders from Great Nicobar Island who are against the Great Nicobar Project and assured them that he would raise their issues in Parliament and visit the islands to see the ground reality.
Sharing a video of a recent interaction, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said that development must empower people, not wipe them out.
Also read | Turbulent Waters: On the Great Nicobar Project
“India belongs to all its people, not to a select few,” he said on Facebook on Wednesday (March 25, 2026).
“I met a delegation of tribal leaders from Great Nicobar Island along with leaders of the Adivasi Congress. As I listened to them, one thing became immediately clear: their frustration is not just about the ‘project’. It is about the people, their identity and their right to live with dignity on their own land,” Gandhi said.
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“They told me how more than 800 families will lose their land because of the Great Nicobar Project, including particularly vulnerable tribal groups,” he said.
Communities that have lived in deep harmony with nature for generations and protected the island’s fragile ecosystem long before any government or corporation took an interest in it, Gandhi said.
Also read | The Great Nicobar Project: Between the Sea and the State
And yet today they are pushed to the margins, he added.
“What struck me was their clarity. When I asked who benefits, they said clearly, billionaires like Adani and Ambani will take control of the ports, infrastructure and resources, while the indigenous people will have to fight,” Gandhi said.
At the same time, they talked about their daily struggles — lack of water, roads, education and jobs, he said.
Yet decisions about their future are being taken without properly taking their consent, without due process and without listening to their voices, Mr. Gandhi alleged.
“I have assured them that I will stand with them, raise the issue in Parliament and visit the islands to see the reality on the ground,” he said.
A six-judge special bench of the National Green Tribunal last month dealt with challenges to the Great Nicobar mega infrastructure project and concluded that it found no good reason to interfere as there were sufficient safeguards under the project’s environmental clearance.
Congress Parliamentary Party President Sonia Gandhi had earlier criticized the project, claiming that the BJP-led government was making a mockery of the legal and advisory processes under the project.
Last year, Sonia Gandhi said the Great Nicobar infrastructure project was a “planned disaster”, posed an existential threat to the island’s indigenous tribal communities and was being pushed insensitively, making “a mockery of all legal and consultative processes”.
This was opposed by Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, who claimed that all clearances had been obtained and defended the project as essential for the country’s development.
Published – 25 March 2026 20:52 IST
