Who is Elavarasan Raja? Why Cognizant Firing him has Become a Huge Issue?

Elavarasan Raja, a Software Profesional from Cognizant with eight years of experience received a termination letter on Tuesday evening. But, at a time when IT layoffs are nothing new, why this termination has garnered considerable attention?

Raja holds the position of General Secretary FITE (The Forum for Information Technology Employees), a registered union in Tamil Nadu & Maharashtra. In the western state, FITE is a part of a tripartite committee including government and IT companies that discuss and solve worker issues.

IT worker rights unions have claimed that Cognizant fired Elavarasan Raja for his involvement in union-related activities against the company. On the other hand, Cognizant denies that claim and says the forced exit was purely based on performance.

“Cognizant recently terminated this employee of approximately five months of tenure with the company for performance reasons and based on client feedback. Our decision is consistent with the terms of our contracts with all of our employees," the company's statement read.