Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Norway, part of a five-nation tour, produced an unexpected flashpoint when a Norwegian journalist’s attempt to ask him a question spiralled from the media rooms to online virality.
A tense press briefing followed, with a troll battle on social media in parallel, plus a political war of words back home in India.
Norwegian journalist calls out to PM Modi
The episode began on Monday, Oslo time, at a joint press statement by PM Modi and his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Støre in the Norwegian capital. As the two leaders were leaving the venue — after their briefing done in a format that did not include a question-and-answer session — a voice rang out across the room: “Prime Minister Modi, why don’t you take some questions from the freest press in the world?”
The voice belonged to Helle Lyng, a journalist with the local newspaper Dagsavisen, who was part of the media contingent covering the visit.
Neither leader broke stride or responded as they walked out. She followed them right up to the lift, until the doors closed.
Lyng had a camera running, and she later posted the video on X. “Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, would not take my question, I was not expecting him to,” she wrote in the caption.
She followed it up with: “Norway has the number one spot on the World Press Freedom Index, India is at 157th, competing with Palestine, Emirates and Cuba. It is our job to question the powers we cooperate with.”
MEA briefing: ‘Why trust you?’ meets a history lesson
The Indian embassy in Norway, responding to Lyng’s X post, invited her to attend a news briefing later that evening. “You are welcome to come and ask your questions,” it wrote.
The briefing, held late Monday night Oslo time, saw Lyng press Indian officials directly across a room that now become a second arena for the same argument. Her questions were, “Why should we trust you?” and “Can you promise you will stop the human rights violation that goes on in your country?” She did not detail these questions further.
She also asked whether PM Modi “will start taking critical questions from the Indian press”.
MEA Secretary (West) Sibi George responded at length. “What is a country? A country today has four elements,” he said.
“One, population; two, government; third, sovereignty; and fourth, territory. And we are proud that we are a civilisational country of 5,000 years old,” he said in a response that ran into several minutes.
He pivoted to India’s Covid response as evidence of global trustworthiness. “We didn’t hide in a cave, we didn’t say we will not save the world. We came out offering a helping hand to the world,” he said, pointing to India having supplied vaccines to around 100 countries.
He also cited India’s contributions to human civilisation, counting the number zero, chess and yoga, and its diplomatic record as evidence. George mentioned that India had hosted the G20 Summit in 2023, facilitating the African Union’s full G20 membership; and organised the Voice of Global South Summits, which brought together 125 countries.
This was not the first time on this tour. The MEA had already faced questions about PM Modi not taking questions at press engagements, and about India’s human rights situation, during the Netherlands leg of the trip. There, George had used several of the same arguments. Norway became the second round.
In Oslo, on the question of human rights, George cited India’s constitutional framework and noted that the last election saw participation of nearly a billion voters and a peaceful transfer of power. “We have a constitution which guarantees the fundamental rights of the people. We have equal rights for the women of our country. In 1947 we gave the freedom to vote to our women,”
He added, “If anyone whose rights are violated, they have the right to go to court. We are proud to be a democracy.”
George then pushed back on the premise of the questions. “People have no understanding of the scale of India. They read one or two news reports published by some godforsaken, ignorant NGOs, and then come and ask questions,” he said. He also cited India’s television ecosystem, saying that there are around 200 TV channels in Delhi alone across languages.
The exchange grew visibly tense as it stretched on. As Lyng attempted to cut in and press for more specific answers, a visibly irate George said, “Please don’t interrupt me,” and later, “You ask a question, don’t ask me to answer in a particular way. These are my prerogatives.”
Lyng later wrote on X that she tried multiple times to get him to be “specific”.
‘Cup of water’ rebuttal to walkout claims
A subplot played out on X over whether Lyng had slipped out of the MEA briefing while George was still mid-answer. George himself had believed at one point during the briefing that she had walked out. On X, when a user accused her of leaving without hearing the response, Lyng’s reply was: “I just needed a cup of water.”
She explained in other posts, “We had been talking for a while and he did not address human rights violations although I asked multiple times to be more specific.”
To another user’s comment that the MEA had “won this round” and that walking out was “not journalism but angry activism”, Lyng replied: “I was just getting water and came back.”
In a separate post, she wrote, “Journalism is sometimes confrontational. We seek answers. If any interview subject, especially with power, does not answer what I asked, I will try to interrupt and get a more focused response. That is my job and duty.”
The original video’s virality also brought a wave of online abuse and accusations against Lyng. She responded with a post saying, “I am not a foreign spy of any sort, sent out by any foreign government… My work is journalism, primarily in Norway now.”
Rahul Gandhi taints, BJP reacts
The episode drew a swift reaction from Congress MP and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on X.
“When there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear. What happens to India’s image when the world sees a compromised PM panic and run from a few questions?” he said, referring to Lyng’s original video in which she’s throwing a question at PM Modi.
In a twist, Lyng responded to a report saying she had asked Gandhi for a phone interview, “I’m ready!”
Gandhi had not responded to the request as of Monday evening.
BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya defended PM Modi by arguing that the Norwegian prime minister also did not take questions at the joint briefing. Lyng countered this: “He did, but only to Norwegian press at first. He met the Indian press later that day.”
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also joined in, posting a picture of PM Modi with Dutch PM Rob Jetten and questioning what “bogus gyaan” the PM was offering his counterpart, a reference to Jetten reportedly having raised concerns about India at a separate occasion.
The Congress party again noted that PM Modi has not addressed a press conference in his 12-year tenure as prime minister so far.
PM Modi departed Oslo for Italy on May 19 to complete the final leg of his five-nation tour.
Several key pacts were signed during the tour, and he was also given high honours by at least two of the countries.
