u/Boss_withCrown2

People keep saying Modi was fully justified in ignoring Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng because an Indian PM doesn’t owe answers to foreign media.

And honestly, taken in isolation, that argument is fair. Accountability should primarily come from Indian citizens and Indian journalists.

But that’s exactly why this incident became a story in the first place.

If Modi regularly held open press conferences in India and answered unscripted questions from Indian reporters, then a foreign journalist being ignored in Norway would’ve been meaningless. Nobody would’ve cared.

The issue is that this pattern exists everywhere.

Twelve years as Prime Minister and still no proper unscripted press conferences. So when he walks away from a journalist abroad, it doesn’t come across as strength or sovereignty. It just looks like continuity.

Meanwhile, Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Støre finished the joint statement and casually returned to speak with reporters. That’s simply normal democratic behavior.

Some people brought up the Epstein comparison, saying Indian journalists could similarly corner European leaders about uncomfortable subjects. Fair point. Many leaders probably would avoid those questions too.

But that doesn’t make avoidance admirable. “Other politicians also dodge scrutiny” isn’t much of a defense. It just lowers the standard for everyone.

Then came the conspiracy theories around Helle Lyng herself. Apparently she criticised Trump, wrote positively about Chinese EV companies like BYD, referred to China as a superpower, and discussed labour issues, therefore she must somehow be connected to the CCP.

But none of this is remotely unusual for a Scandinavian journalist.

Criticising Trump is mainstream across much of Europe. Calling China a superpower is just acknowledging reality. Writing about BYD outperforming Tesla is business reporting, not espionage. And labour rights are a central political issue in Nordic countries. People are acting like they uncovered an international intelligence operation because a journalist wrote about electric cars. Civilization truly is held together by tape and caffeine.

And even if someone believes all of those theories, the supposed “operation” still makes no sense. She shouted a single question while Modi was leaving the room. That required no elaborate coordination. Any journalist present could have done the same thing.

What the conspiracy narrative really does is shift attention away from the actual issue: why does the PM consistently avoid unscripted questioning altogether?

The same thing happened when Sabrina Siddiqui questioned Modi during the Biden visit. Instead of discussing the question itself, large sections of the discourse became focused on attacking the journalist personally.

That’s the larger pattern here.

The outrage repeatedly becomes the existence of uncomfortable questions rather than the absence of answers.

And that’s not confidence. It’s the opposite.

For people unfamiliar with the context: Modi is currently on a five-nation tour. During his Norway visit, he and Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Støre delivered joint media statements. There was no Q&A session afterward. Støre later returned to interact with journalists. Modi left the venue, and as he was walking out, Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng called out: “Prime Minister Modi, why don’t you take questions from the freest press in the world?” Modi did not respond and continued walking. Lyng later clarified that she never actually expected him to answer.