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New Delhi: Government on Wednesday gave a free hand to Air India management to crack down on a section of its employees on strike calling their action irresponsible, as the state-owned airline cancelled another 76 flights across the country.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel spoke to CNN-IBN correspondent Prarthana Gahilote. CNN-IBN: Big sigh of relief for passengers and travellers who are hoping to travel this season. We have with us man of the moment, Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel. Big sigh of relief for you as well sir? Praful Patel: Well, it's not a question of a big sigh of relief. It's a question of people knowing what their responsibilities are. We have no issues unions expressing their views if there are any, but at a time whenAir India and the whole country is mourning the death of 158 people in the tragic accident, the Air Indiafamily and everybody should stand united. This is an hour of crisis. This is not an hour of trying to settle scores with anybody. And on humanitarian grounds, if Air India got an aircraft to Mangalore with the relatives of the deceased, brought coffins to carry the dead bodies, if the certification of that aircraft was done by a Kingfisher engineer - I mean, don't we help each other in times of need? To take irresponsibility to such levels is absolutely ridiculous and unpardonable.

CNN-IBN: Were you distressed at the kind of behaviour that was put out in front of the entire nation?Praful Patel: Absolutely, it is irresponsible, I would say it's almost shameful. How can we justify such kind of behaviour? At the end of the day what did the management do? They (AI union) went to the media and started criticising the management publicly for having taken a certification from a Kingfisher engineer, which was done by taking a prior permission from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), it's all within the rules. In times of crises, we don't point fingers at anybody, in fact, we take the help of whoever is willing to offer help. We have told the management that you are free to take any decisive action you want, deal with it firmly, and deal with it strongly. There's no question of anybody not backing you.

CNN-IBN: What could be the future course of action?

Praful Patel: I don't want to go into what the management has done, after all, they have to run the organisation. As I said, they are free to do whatever they want. They will obviously do it within a prescribed parameter. We are not saying fundamentally that all employees of Air India are bad. There are very many good elements and just a few people holding an entire company to ransom. Not only the company, forget just Air India, look at the number of passengers who are inconvenienced. Ultimately, what is Air India? It's the passengers who make an airline. If they don't fly or choose not to fly, then what remains of an airline? In fact, that should have been the primary consideration. Fifty thousand passengers on a given day flewAir India just two days ago, which is the highest in its recorded history. When the government and everybody is working to bring back the past glory of Air India, government is willing to put money, has committed itself, we brought in a good board of independent directors, a professional COO is joining in a couple of days, everything possible is being done to bring back the airline to shape and this is the way people behave and that also in the aftermath of a tragedy? It has to do a lot.