Mining an opportunity

Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the first elected female head of state of an African nation. Yet the Chhattisgarh government gave her the coolest of receptions when she visited the state during her recent trip to India to receive the Indira Gandhi peace prize. The reason the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state gave an honoured guest of the government of India short shrift was that her visit was arranged by Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL). Sirleaf visited the JSPL facilities in Raigarh and left the same evening and the state government observed the minimum protocol of allocating some officials to receive her and see her off. The problem, it appeared. was purely commercial. The African country has iron ore deposits in abundance. As industrial department officials pointed out, Sirleaf showed interest in JSPL only, hence the cool reception. Had she taken the initiative to allocate a few mines to the state-run Mineral Development Corporation for exploring and selling the mineral, the welcome could have been red carpet.