Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday spoke with the parents of Anna Sebastian Perayil, who died due to alleged extreme work pressure at Ernst & Young, and assured them that he will fight for the cause of improving working conditions for the millions of professionals in India.

Gandhi assured them that he will fight for this cause in his personal capacity as the Leader of the Opposition.

Gandhi spoke with the parents of Anna Sebastian via a video call arranged by the Chairman of All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) Praveen Chakravarty who visited their home in Kochi.

He offered his sympathies at Anna’s sudden and tragic demise and lauded the family’s courage and selflessness to speak up at this extremely difficult moment about this issue in the larger interest of improving working conditions for the millions of professionals in India, a statement issued by the AIPC said.

Gandhi also instructed the AIPC Chairman to create an awareness movement in Anna’s memory for all working professionals in India.

“Following Gandhi’s instructions, AIPC will announce a helpline soon to collect information from corporate professionals about issues related to work stress and toxic work culture. Post which, AIPC will seek to come up with draft guidelines for better working conditions for professionals in the corporate sector,” the statement said.

In a post on X last night, senior Congress leader and former AIPC Chairman Shashi Tharoor said he had a deeply emotional and heartrending conversation with Sibi Joseph, the father of Anna Sebastian who passed away after a cardiac arrest following four months of deeply stressful seven-day weeks of 14 hours a day at Ernst & Young.

“He suggested, and I agreed, that I raise the issue of legislating, through Parliament, a fixed calendar for all workplaces, whether in the private sector or the public, that would not exceed eight hours a day, five days a week. Inhumanity at the workplace must be legislated out of existence with stringent punishment and fines for offenders. Human rights do not stop at the workplace!” Tharoor said.

 “Will raise this matter at the first opportunity during the next session of Parliament,” Tharoor said.

Perayil was a 26-year-old chartered accountant (CA) who died allegedly due to extreme work pressure at the firm.

EY on Wednesday had issued a statement stating, “We are deeply saddened by Anna Sebastian’s tragic and untimely passing in July 2024.”

Since the death, EY has been in touch with the family, helping them but it is only now that her family has chosen to write to the company, complaining about the “excessive workload”, it had said.

EY has said it will continue to improve and provide a healthy workplace in its offices throughout the country.

The Ministry of Labour & Employment is investigating an alleged “unsafe and exploitative work environment”, days after the tragic demise of Anna Sebastian Perayil who worked with S R Batliboi, a member firm of EY Global.

Asserting that they would not be cowed down by the RSS-BJP’s “poisonous mindset”, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said his party would launch an agitation against threats to Rahul Gandhi.

Kharge also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s failure to take action against leaders of his party who used derogatory remarks against the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.

Addressing a press conference in Jammu, Kharge said BJP leaders make provocative and objectionable statements against Rahul Gandhi but why doesn’t Narendra Modi take action against them, because he himself is afraid?

“These people had stayed at home out of fear even at the time of independence. But the people of Congress were not afraid. They fought for independence, made sacrifices and got freedom for the country. Even today Congress is not going to be afraid,” Kharge charged.

“BJP, RSS leaders, including MLAs and MPs, talk about chopping off the tongues of our leaders. Rahul Gandhi is under attack for speaking the truth and an atmosphere of hate is created against him like (it was done against his grandmother) Indira Gandhi,” Kharge said.

“Such provocative speeches by the BJP and the RSS are ignored by the Prime Minister, who has failed to rein in these leaders and take action against them because he is frightened of them,” he said.

Kharge, who reached Jammu to campaign for Congress candidates in the assembly elections, said Gandhi was being dubbed a “terrorist” and “anti-national” and added that the Prime Minister was encouraging such things and provoking people by not taking action.

In a major setback for the central government, the Bombay High Court on Friday struck down the amended Information Technology (IT) Rules, which sought to identify fake and false content on social media against the government, and held it unconstitutional.

The court, while hearing four petitions filed by stand-up comic Kunal Kamra, the Editors Guild of India, the Association of Indian Magazines and the News Broadcast and Digital Association, held that the rules violated constitutional provisions.

As a tie-breaker judge, A S Chandurkar, was hearing the matter after a division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale in January delivered a split verdict on the petitions challenging the amended IT rules.

While Justice Patel struck down the Rules, Justice Gokhale upheld them.

Justice Patel had said the Rules amounted to censorship, but Justice Gokhale had opined they did not have any `chilling effect’ on free speech as argued.

In today’s hearing, Justice Chandurkar held the Information Technology Amendment Rules, 2023, which empowers the Centre to set up Fact Check Units (FCUs) for identifying fake news online, against Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution.

“I have considered the matter extensively. The impugned rules are violative of Article 14 (right to equality), 19 (freedom of speech and expression) and 19(1)(g) (freedom and right to profession) of the Constitution of India,” the judge said.

The expression “fake, false and misleading” in the Rules was “vague and hence wrong” in the absence of any definition, he added.

Justice Chandurkar said he agreed with the opinion given by Justice Patel (now retired).

On April 6, 2023, the Union government promulgated amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, including a provision for an FCU to flag fake, false, or misleading online content related to the government.

Under the IT Rules, if the FCU comes across any posts that are fake, false, and contain misleading facts about the business of the government, it would flag the same to social media intermediaries.