Trump blew lid off illusion, Modi nowhere to be seen: Rahul as stock markets crash over tariff turmoil

New Delhi: 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 US 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.

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," 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 per cent 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 per cent to 71,425.01.

The NSE Nifty tumbled 742.85 points or 3.24 per cent to settle at 22,161.60. Intra-day, the benchmark dropped 1,160.8 points or 5.06 per cent to 21,743.65.

All Sensex shares, except for Hindustan Unilever, ended with losses. Tata Steel fell the most by 7.33 per cent followed by Larsen & Toubro which cracked 5.78 per cent.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tanked more than 13 per cent, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 plunged nearly 8 per cent, the Shanghai SSE Composite index dropped over 7 per cent and South Korea's Kospi sank over 5 per cent.

European markets too came under heavy selling pressure and were trading with up to a 6 per cent decline.

US markets ended sharply lower on Friday. The S&P 500 dropped 5.97 per cent, the Nasdaq composite slumped 5.82 per cent and the Dow tumbled 5.50 per cent on Friday.