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Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Monday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's handling of India's bilateral relationship with the US as the Indian stock market continued to be in the red after President Donald Trump's announcement of sweeping tariffs.
"Indian stock market has crashed hugely. It opened up about 3,000 points down...This happens to be the 5th or 6th biggest fall in the stock market. Unfortunately, the PM is depending on his personal chemistry with US President Donald Trump, and he thinks that he can conduct diplomacy on a personal repo with the American President," Chavan told ANI. "Global diplomacy doesn't work that way...The global recession will hurt us badly. Now, the people who have invested in mutual funds will now lose heavily," he added. The Indian markets followed the path of the global bloodbath in stock indices, and both Indian indices opened with heavy selling pressure. The Nifty 50 index tanked 5 per cent in the opening, marking one of the highest falls since COVID during opening, and opened at 21,758.40 points with a decline of 1,146.05 points or -5 per cent. Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down by 5.29 percent, opening at 71,379.8 with a decline of 3,984.80 points or 5.29 percent.Experts stated that the government needs to implement a reform package to help the markets navigate this global selloff amid Trump's announcements. Ajay Bagga, a Banking and Market Expert, told ANI, "India will face the heat, not due to domestic reasons, but as an interlinked chain in the global portfolio flows. India will need a fiscal, monetary and reform package to protect the domestic economy from this global economic winter that is threatening to settle in. The consequences of an Economic-Nuclear policy which has announced the highest tariffs of a century on all trading partners are now coming home to roost". He further added, "Taking the cue from the USD 5.4 trillion 2-day meltdown in the US markets, we are seeing unprecedented selling in Asian markets, with Taiwan, which was closed on Thursday and Friday, seeing a 20 per cent down day and Hong Kong seeing a 10 per cent cut and then some recovery." The experts also noted that the economic situation needs a rollback by the Trump administration, either as a postponement of the reciprocal tariffs or as some reduction. However, Trump Administration officials have stated that they see the tariffs being in place for the next few weeks/months. In the other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 index dropped sharply by 5.79 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index followed with a steep fall of around 10 per cent. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted Index also saw a major slide, losing 9.61 per cent in early trade. South Korea's KOSPI index was down by 4.14 per cent, while China's Shanghai Composite fell by 6.5 per cent at the time of filing this report. (ANI)
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