EY Employee Death: Nirmala Sitharaman said ‘Seek God and Learn Good Discipline’

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday urged colleges and universities to teach students stress management techniques. Her reasoning was that this would assist students develop their inner strengths.

Sitharaman’s statement came following the death of a 26-year-old CA professional working for Ernst & Young (EY), a Big 4 accounting company. Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old CA who completed her Chartered Accountancy examinations in 2023 and worked at the EY Pune office for four months, died in July.

In a letter to EY India chairman Rajiv Memani, Perayil’s mother blamed her daughter’s death on an excessive workload that exhausted her “physically, emotionally, and mentally.” While addressing an event at a private medical college, she referred to the young CA’s death without mentioning the victim or the company.

“I was talking about an issue that has been in the headlines for the past two days. Our children excel academically at colleges and universities. A company, without specifying its name, is a partnership. There was a woman who had studied CA well but was unable to cope with the work strain. We received news 2-3 days ago that she had died as a result of the pressure,” Sitharaman stated.

She went on to say that even if educational institutions provide outstanding education and job opportunities for students through campus recruitments, they should also teach certain things that are taught in the household.

“What should families teach — whatsoever you study and the job you do, you ought to possess the inner strength to handle that pressure and this can be achieved through divinity only,” according to her.

“We need to believe in God in order to receive His grace. Seek God and learn good discipline. This is the only way your Atma Shakthi will develop. The Finance Minister stated that strengthening Atma Shakti is the only way to gain inner strength.

FM Sitharaman went on to say that educational institutions should incorporate divinity and spirituality so that students can gain inner strength. The central government has intervened and said that it will probe the work environment at the Big 4 accounting firm.

Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal condemned Sitharaman, calling her comments “outright cruel” and accusing the Union Minister of blaming the victim. Venugopal stated in a post on X that the ruling government and Sitharaman can only sense the pain of corporate giants such as Adani and Ambani.

He further said that the current government is unable to see the plight of the diligent and toiling young generation, in which freshers like Anna are exploited by the greedy corporate system, assuming they are even able to find work in this era of unusual unemployment.

“It is incredibly cruel of the finance minister to criticize Anna and her family for saying that she should have learned stress management at home. This kind of victim blaming is unacceptable, and no words can express the outrage and disapproval that such statements cause,” he said in a post on ‘X.’

He also questioned how the government could be so ‘heartless’ and whether they had lost their sense of empathy.