While addressing an event at a medical college in Chennai on Sunday, the minister had reportedly said people needed inner strength to handle pressure and it could only be achieved by divinity

In the wake of a young EY employee’s death, allegedly due to extreme work pressure, FM Sitharaman stirred up a controversy when she opined that families should teach children to cope with stress.

India is investigating the work environment at Big Four accounting firm EY, the labour minister said on Thursday, after the death of a 26-year-old associate worker was blamed on stress by her mother who demanded accountability.

Anna Sebastian Perayil died in July and was overworked with a “backbreaking” load as a new employee, which affected her “physically, emotionally, and mentally”, her mother Anita Augustine wrote in a letter to EY’s India chairman which went viral on social media.

EY India Chairman Rajiv Memani expressed regret for not attending the 26-year-old employee's funeral, whose death is alleged to be the stress caused by work, reported the news agency PTI on Friday.

FM Sitharaman argued that her comments were misinterpreted in the wrong context as she was addressing students of a university and speaking about spirituality as she denied 'victim blaming' the deceased EY employee.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman responded to accusations of victim shaming after MP Priyanka Chaturvedi criticized her remarks on Anna Sebastian Perayil's death, attributed to work pressure at Ernst & Young.

Nirmala Sitharman said her remarks were taken out of context, adding that the Centre has already assured a thorough probe into the allegations of an exploitative work environment in Anna's death