The episode began on Monday, Oslo time, at a joint press statement by PM Narendra Modi and his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Støre in the Norwegian capital.

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