This is the question angry and beleaguered tribals in Orissa and Jharkhand are asking, as mining companies set up shop in the midst of their land and forests, rooting to uproot them. It is a question the companies answer firmly in the affirmative. In 1993, the government of India began to deregulate the mining sector. States rich in mineral wealth, such as Orissa and Jharkhand, literally took up the call to 'open up'. Agog, private mining interests queued up. Awed, state governments went on a spree, signing one joint venture after another. Today, this question openly haunts India's governors. For states have blithely bent the law of the land. They seem proud to venture on as the repressive arm of projects hell-bent on meeting production deadlines. The Centre looks on, blind. Certainly, this question provokes another: cannot India's mineral wealth positively sustain people, instead of being the source of development's latest genocide here?