That question is a line from the Indian rather than the Australian media.

A.K. Aggarwal poses the question and many others  in an open letter to the Indian Home Affairs minister P. Chidambaram.

Aggarwal links the unfair distribution of mineral resources to the increasingly violent Naxalite rebellion (described by Chidambaran as “the first enemy of the country”).

Aggarwal asks “Would the Naxal problem have been there if 25% of the mining profit was spent on the poor and the tribal living in the mining area and whose life was uprooted by the greedy corporate/mining mafia with active connivance of the law enforcers andpolicy makers?”

And current political developments in Australia do not go unnoticed:

  • Are you aware that even a resource-rich and affluent country like Australia with a low population base is imposing an additional 40% windfall tax on mining profits?
  • Can a poor country like India afford to forgo these windfall profits?

(props to Goldie Osuri…)