The main opposition party pointed fingers at Finance Minister P Chidambaram and asked him to explain why he waited for the BSE sensitive index (Sensex) to fall by nearly 1,800 points, that led to investors losing over four lakh crore before coming up with a clarification. It insisted that some manipulators and market players benefited from the crash as it appeared that they knew beforehand about the stock market plunge.

The stock market nearly made up for the 1,744 points it tanked early in the day after the Government and SEBI reassured investors there was no move to ban PNs but only curb funds inflow.

“We want to know why only an intent was expressed by SEBI without any policy measures at a time when the market was volatile. Why the Finance Minister was late in his clarification? We believe that only a JPC probe will find out the truth,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar said.

The “irresponsible” conduct of the Government and “unwarranted” comments of SEBI has led to the crash and an investigation was necessary, he said.

“The announcement by SEBI and a late clarification by the Finance Minister clearly exemplifies the complete mishandling by the Government and its agencies,” the BJP spokesman said.

The extreme volatility in the capital market also points towards existence of a nexus between various persons and institutions, he said.

“The BJP demands a JPC probe to investigate this nexus and mismanagement,” Javdekar added.