Stock market slide: Akhilesh Yadav says common people losing money, blames Centre

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said it is very important to pay attention to the slump of India's markets as common people are losing their money and this could cause the economy to sink.

In a post on X in Hindi, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister held the central government responsible for this "double vicious circle" of the economy.

Indian markets plunged on Friday after US President Donald Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs, including 27 per cent on India, to reduce the trade deficit and boost domestic manufacturing.

"It is very important to pay attention to the loss of millions of crores in the country's stock market because the savings and capital of the common people, who have some extra money to invest and with which they buy goods or services and vehicles and land, is being lost.

"These are the things that keep the wheel of buying and selling moving in the market and also the economy. If the money of the common people is lost in the stock market, then both the market and the economy sink," Yadav said in his post.

Investors' wealth dropped by Rs 10 lakh crore on Friday as the BSE Sensex slumped over 900 points to crash below the 76,000 level due to an across-the-board sell-off, tracking weak global markets amid growing global trade war fears.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 930.67 points or 1.22 per cent to settle at 75,364.69.

Tracking the weak trend in equities, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms eroded by Rs 9,98,379.46 crore to Rs 4,03,34,886.46 crore (USD 4.73 trillion).

Today, when the youth are investing their savings in the stock market, they are also becoming victims of this uncertainty of the market. This is a very dangerous situation for the future of the country's capital market, the SP chief said.

"When the youth will suffer losses, they will also shy away from shares and other investments, which will not be a positive signal for the future of the stock market," he said.

On the other hand, Yadav said, there are people who neither have money nor jobs since demonetisation and "recession".

"Such unemployed and helpless people, facing hunger and unemployment, earn their living only with the help of market activities and dynamism. This is why the fall of the stock market has a very bad long-term effect on their livelihood," he said.

"The bitter truth is that if we leave aside the 1 per cent super-rich people, then the remaining 99 per cent of the common people of the country are being ruined directly or indirectly by the destruction of the stock market," he said.

"The BJP government is not only directly responsible for this double vicious circle of the economy, it is also guilty. Investors today say, we don't want BJP!" he added.