Trump blew lid off illusion, Modi nowhere to be seen, says Rahul Gandhi

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, 7 April, as stock markets continued to reel under the effect of US reciprocal tariffs.

The Leader of the 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 in India on Monday with benchmark Sensex sinking by 2,226.79 points — its steepest single-day decline in 10 months.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tanked more than 13 per cent, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 plunged over 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, 4 April.