With the stock market reporting the largest single-day decline in 10 months, the Congress hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him and U.S. President Donald Trump of giving their respective economies “self-inflicted wounds”.
Mirroring a sharp fall in global equities in a fallout of the U.S. President’s tariff hikes and retaliation from China, the Sensex and Nifty crashed over 5%.
Questioning the government’s silence on the hike in tariff imposed on Indian exports to U.S. by the Trump administration, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said in a post on X that India has to build a “resilient”, “production-based economy” that works for all Indians. He added, “Trump has blown the lid off the illusion. Reality is biting back. PM Modi is nowhere to be seen.”
In a post on X, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said, “It is no wonder that Mr. Modi and Mr. Trump describe themselves as good friends. Both are experts in giving their economies self-inflicted wounds. November 8, 2016 was demonetisation. April 2, 2025 was the bizarre reciprocal tariffs. Markets are reacting predictably in a “tariffying” manner,” Mr. Ramesh said.
Senior Congress leader Supriya Shrinate pointed out that the markets on Monday morning lost ₹19 lakh crore in the first five minutes, hitting small investors. Questioning the government’s silence over the Trump government’s tariff hike, Ms. Shrinate said it will further push the Indian economy into a downward spiral and take away jobs. “The EU, China, Japan, Britain, Spain, Brazil, Canada, Australia have all openly opposed the tariff hikes. But it is funny that Modi ji has not uttered a word,” she said in a statement here.
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