New Delhi, June 25 (ANI): Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Monday termed the indefinite hunger strike by a section of agitating Air India (AI) pilots to be illegal, and urged them to join their duties with immediate effect.
"The place of a pilot is in the cockpit, not on a strike. They should fly the passengers. They have got experience and a good job. There is no issue. Why don't they return to work?" asked Singh.
"We have had several rounds of talks. I am saying through the press that your strike is illegal, you have no issues and we want you to join duty again. There will be no victimization. You are creating trouble for the passengers, you yourselves are troubled. What will be the result of this strike?" he added.
When asked what will the government do to save Air India, Singh said: "The government has formulated a turnaround plan in which we are giving Rs. 30,000 crores. The performance standards will be met. This is not an easy task, because Air India's financial condition is very poor."
"The pilots should also think about this that if there will be no Air India, then they will also have no work," he added.
In a bid to mount pressure on the government to come to the negotiating table, 11 striking pilots of Air India went on an indefinite hunger strike here earlier on Sunday, seeking the reinstatement of 101 sacked pilots and recognition of the Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG).
Air India Pilots had on Sunday hit out at the Civil Aviation Ministry for turning a deaf ear to their woes, by saying they were compelled to undertake the indefinite hunger strike as a final resort.
The striking pilots compared the Congress-led UPA Government to the colonial East India Company that exploited local Indians to the hilt.
"When a person's woes are not heard, then any sincere individual or employee would be compelled to take this kind of step and look upto God and public. It our request that we should at least be heard before being denied of our demands. They (Ministry of Civil Aviation and Air India management) are denying our demands without even hearing us out," said Hari Shankar, one of the protesting pilots.
"They terminated 101 of our men when we refused to follow their illogical orders. This is nothing but dictatorship. When we asked them to take our pilots back they agreed to provide salaries of everyone but us. Is India a free country, or still being ruled by the East India Company?" he asked.
The Air India pilots stir was to highlight their demands for career progression and other issues such as training of pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines (that was merged with Air India) to fly the Boeing-787 Dreamliner aircraft, to be procured shortly.
Around 400 pilots took part in the hunger strike.
They said that the management had refused to have a dialogue with them; as such this was one of the ways to draw the attention of the concerned authorities with an aim to end the impasse.
Pilots have insisted that they would go back to work, but the management must take back all the pilots and start discussion with the unions so that normalcy can be resumed. (ANI)
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