As the strike by scientists and other staffers of Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) enters the 37th day today to protest the ‘political interference’ in the appointment of the executive director (ED), almost all the work at the agricultural research agency has come to a grinding halt. One of the agitators’ main demands is to reinstate the organisation’s actual executive director who was appointed as per NARC’s rules instead of the officiating ED who, they allege, had supported the royal government.

The Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives has, however, assured the agitators that their demands would be fulfilled soon. Placating the scientists is no solution but creating a healthy working environment is what is direly needed. The employees do not expect any sort of extraneous intervention in their day-to-day functioning, least of all in the appointment of the head honcho. The political leaders will have to stop pushing their candidates because this not only has a demoralising effect on the employees but also endangers the decision-making process. Government bodies, corporations, and private undertakings sho-uld pick up people for crucial slots in particular only on the basis of pure merit with stress on performance and integrity. The tendency to appoint government bureaucrats in top slots of corporations and other autonomous or semi-autonomous bodies must be discouraged. Appointment of professionals is the key to better performance and result. The other important feature is induction of a well-defined and transparent mechanism that maintains a constant watch over the appointees’ honesty and accountability.