New Delhi, May 1 (IANS) As the Air India strike continued for the fifth day Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that it was a ploy to shut the national airline, and demanded the prime minister speak on the issue.

 
 "The prime minister must be frank enough to find out and tell the nation who is responsible for the mess of Air India and are they planning a shut out," party spokesperson and former civil aviation minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy asked while speaking to reporters here.
 
 Operations of the national airline were affected after the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines struck work from midnight Tuesday, demanding parity in pay with their counterparts in Air India.
 
 "We would like the prime minister to answer who was responsible for the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India and its failure. Who is responsible of sell out of all profitable routes?  What happened to the Rs. 2,000 crore equity given to Air India,"  Rudy asked .
 
 He alleged that government wanted to shut down the national carrier to hide the losses it has undergone.
 
 "The big loss which is going on in Air-India... has the central government made up its mind that it wants to shut down the airline to hide it? Another question is who will benefit from closure of Air India? We would like to know from the prime minister," he said.
 
 "The private companies which are making losses will benefit, the private airlines have already increased their ticket prices during the strike. The common people will lose and private airlines will benefit, specially in the vacation season," Rudy said, alleging that it was a conspiracy to privatise the airline.
 
 "Is it a planned conspiracy? Does it mean the government wants to privatise the airline? If it wants to do so, it should express it openly," he added.