Great Nicobar project ‘commercial, not strategic’, Ramesh tells Rajnath in fresh letter
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh has challenged Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's assertion that the Great Nicobar Island Project is a strategic national initiative. Ramesh argues the project is primarily a commercial real estate venture and has raised concerns regarding its environmental and social impact on tribal lands.
Why it matters
The debate underscores the tension between large-scale infrastructure development and environmental/strategic concerns in ecologically sensitive regions.
In his latest letter, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh has rejected Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s contention that the Great Nicobar Island Project is a strategically vital national initiative. He reiterated that the scheme is “most fundamentally a commercial enterprise” for which a strategic rationale is being “invented.”
Mr. Ramesh was responding to Mr. Singh’s reply of July 17, which had itself answered two of the MP’s earlier letters. Over the past two years, Mr. Ramesh has written repeatedly on the project to four Union Ministers — Environment, Forests and Climate Change; Tribal Affairs; Ports, Shipping and Waterways; and Defence — three of whom, he said, have replied.
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