Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. File.
| Photo Credit: PTI
President Donald Trump has “blown the lid off the illusion” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “nowhere to be seen”, Congress Rahul Gandhi said on Monday as stock markets continued to reel under the effect of U.S. reciprocal tariffs.
The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said India has to accept the reality and has no choice but to build a resilient, production-based economy that works for all Indians.
Indian stock market crash updates: April 7, 2025
The Congress has been attacking the government over its handling of the economy, claiming the issues of rising prices, decreasing private investment and stagnating wages were hitting the common people hard.
Earlier this month, the opposition party flagged a decade-long real income stagnation, a consumption boom entirely driven by the expansion of credit and deepening inequality as the three threats to the economy, and wondered what would it take for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hear them.
“Trump has blown the lid off the illusion. Reality is biting back. PM Modi is nowhere to be seen,” Mr. Gandhi said in a post on X.
“India has to accept reality. We have no choice but to build a resilient, production-based economy that works for all Indians,” the former Congress president said.
Stock markets crumbled on Monday with benchmark Sensex sinking by 2,226.79 points – its steepest single-day decline in 10 months – as a global market carnage following US President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes and retaliation from China fanned fears of economic slowdown.
The 30-share BSE Sensex crashed 2,226.79 points or 2.95% to settle at 73,137.90, recording its third day of decline. During the day, the index slumped 3,939.68 points or 5.22% to 71,425.01.
The NSE Nifty tumbled 742.85 points or 3.24% to settle at 22,161.60. Intra-day, the benchmark dropped 1,160.8 points or 5.06% to 21,743.65.
All Sensex shares, except for Hindustan Unilever, ended with losses. Tata Steel fell the most by 7.33% followed by Larsen & Toubro which cracked 5.78%.
In Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tanked more than 13%, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 plunged nearly 8%, the Shanghai SSE Composite index dropped over 7% and South Korea’s Kospi sank over 5%.
European markets too came under heavy selling pressure and were trading with up to a 6% decline.
U.S. markets ended sharply lower on Friday. The S&P 500 dropped 5.97%, the Nasdaq composite slumped 5.82% and the Dow tumbled 5.50% on Friday.
Published – April 07, 2025 05:42 pm IST