Agitating Air India pilots today urged the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Congress top brass to step in to resolve the impasse over the 52-day long strike, as the condition of some of them on protest fast worsened.
The Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG), which is spearheading the agitation and the five-day-old hunger strike, shot off letters to Dr Singh, the Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, and the General Secretary, Mr Rahul Gandhi, seeking their “urgent intervention to resolve the prolonged agitation”.
With three pilots, who were on hunger strike since Sunday, being hospitalised on Wednesday following deterioration in their health, the condition of a few more in Delhi and Mumbai worsened.
Castigating the Air India management for maintaining “a stony silence” on finding a resolution to the prolonged imbroglio, the IPG Joint Secretary, Mr Tauseef Mukadam, said in that the well-being of the airline was “essential if the aviation industry has to be an engine of economic growth”.