Modi must apologize over Pathankot probe: Kejriwal

New Delhi, April 5 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "apologize to the nation" for allowing a Pakistani team to probe the terror attack on the Pathankot IAF base.

Amid Pakistani media reports that the Pakistani investigators had concluded that the January 2 attack was staged by India, Kejriwal insisted that there had been some "deal" between the BJP and Islamabad.

"The entire country and all political parties were against the idea of inviting a Pakistani Joint Investigation Team to probe the attack on the airbase in Pathankot," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said.

"The government itself said that (Pakistan's intelligence agency) ISI was involved in the terror attack. How can the ISI investigate its own role? The prime minister should apologise to the nation for (this)."

The chief minister mocked at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its leaders' enthusiasm to make everyone say "Bharat Mata ki Jai". "They keep asking everyone to say 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. And they stabbed Bharat Mata in the back."

Taking a jibe at Modi's meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore in December, Kejriwal said: "Modiji met Nawaz Sharif on (Sharif's) birthday. A week later the (Pathankot) attack took place.

"Modiji should reveal what deal he signed with the Pakistani prime minister. The people of this country have all the right to know what transpired between the prime ministers of the two countries.

"What's the deal, we are unable to understand," he said at a media meet. "What was the need to invite the very people who attacked the base to investigate the attack?"

He said the invitation to the Pakistani probe team was a foreign policy failure.

"In the global forums India would say that the ISI was responsible for spreading terrorism in India. But by inviting the ISI to India, how will India validate its claim before the international community? The foreign policy of the government has failed miserably.

"(NSA chief) Ajit Doval himself sent dossiers to Pakistan detailing ISI's role in terror activities in India. All this while India was in a stronger position than Pakistan in international forums. This move has compromised India's position."

Kejriwal said there was mass anger in India over the decision to allow the JIT to visit the Pathankot base.

He recalled that Modi used to thunder at election rallies during the Lok Sabha polls of 2014 that one had to be stern with Pakistan and that sending "love letters" to Islamabad won't help.

"So what happened now? Why did our prime minister surrender to Pakistan? What were the compulsions that made him go to Pakistan to wish Happy Birthday to Nawaz Sharif?"

The chief minister also asked the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS, to question Modi on the issue.

"No one is above the country. If they (BJP and RSS) are true patriots, then they should ask Modi why he knelt before Pakistan."

Earlier, Kejriwal tweeted: "Even though BJP/RSS chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai,' but by inviting ISI to India, they have stabbed Mother India in the back."

The Pakistan team that visited India included an officer from its premier intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Pakistani media reports say the Pakistani JIT had concluded that the January 2 Pathankot terror attack that left seven Indian security personnel dead was staged by New Delhi to spread "vicious propaganda" against Islamabad.