Sitharaman’s spirituality & divinity for stressed youth

Nirmala Sitharaman normalizes exploitative workplaces

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, September 23: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman exemplifies nonchalance in times of extreme economic upheavals. She desires that the young working population should instill divinity and spirituality to fight off stress at workplaces.

“A woman who had studied CA well, unable to cope up with work pressure …she died due to work pressure,” Sitharaman told a gathering at a medical college.

Anna Sebastien Perayil was thrilled five months ago after bagging a job, fresh in her career, with Earnst & Young. “I am happy to share that I am starting a new position as Audit and Assurance Executive at E&Y,” Perayil, hailing from Kerala, posted on Linkedin.

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Sitharaman apparently exhorted educational institutions for ordaining spirituality in reference to Perayil. Mother of the deceased CA has claimed that her daughter was extremely stressed and she was made to work for 24-hour.

Sitharaman has not spelt out magical powers of spirituality that can help youngsters to work 24-hour and stay happy. The minister is yet to explain the required “divinity”.

Infosys founder N. Narayan Murthy is a role model of the new age economy. Murthy had advocated 70-hour work a week for the youth.

Perayil apparently exceeded expectation of Murthy from the youth of India. Image managers of Narendra Modi have long been selling claims of long work-hour of the incumbent prime minister. Thus, long work hours would sound normal for Sitharaman.

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Gambhir Singh Rana was working for a production company in West Delhi for past 26-year. He had given prime of his life for the company. In his mid-50s, he died by suicide. His daughter lodged an FIR against bosses of her father for harassment and mental stress in Faridabad.

Rana’s former colleague also had filed an FIR against the same set of the people. “I have also filed a case against them …when I was pregnant, they tortured me like hell and finally terminated my services when I came back after maternity leave and my pregnancy got terminated, too, in the sixth month due to stress and other medical reports,” the woman in her mid-30s said.

It will indeed be helpful if Sitharaman could reveal the details of “divinity and spirituality” that could have helped victims of works stress that move the people to end their lives.

Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mansukh Madaviya is yet to share his thoughts on the pandemic of suicides by the employed men and women in all age groups.

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Anita Augustine wrote a detailed letter to Rajiv Memani, Earnst & Young India Chairman. She is the mother of the young chartered accountant who died due to cardiac arrest per reports.

“My daughter was told that several people had resigned from the department that she was joining due to excessive workload,” wrote Augustine in her letter to Memani.

The excessive workload optimises output of an enterprise which gains by cutting down on employee costs to enhance margin of profit. Sitharaman risks patronising the tribe of Memani.

Existing labour laws prohibit long work-hour. But such laws are comatose. High economic growth is incumbent upon ‘labour reform’. This essentially meant that the state will turn blind eyes to existing labour laws.

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Enterprises and their managers exploit employees by harvesting job insecurity. Augustine should know that Memani is just a cog in the wheel of the new economy.

Augustine should ideally be confronting Sitharaman and Mandaviya, for the two Union Ministers are the angel guardians of the exploitative workplaces. Sitharaman’s “divinity and spirituality’ advocacy is indeed cruel response of the minister in-charge of the economy.

(Opinions expressed in the article solely belong to the author)

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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