A video circulating on X has added fresh fuel to the ongoing controversy surrounding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s five-nation tour – this time from Oslo, where a Norwegian journalist attempted to question him as he walked off stage with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

“Prime Minister Modi, why don’t you take some questions from the freest press in the world?” called out Helle Lyng of the Oslo-based paper Dagsavisen, her question going unanswered.

Lyng was unsurprised. “Prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, would not take my question, I was not expecting him to,” she wrote on X. “Norway has the number one spot on the World Press Freedom Index, India is at 157th, competing with Palestine, Emirates & Cuba. It is our job to question the powers we cooperate with.”

The last flashpoint

The incident is the latest episode in a tour that has been shadowed by questions about press freedom. The more serious flashpoint came days earlier, during Modi’s stop in The Hague. The stated purpose of the visit – elevating bilateral ties to a strategic partnership anchored in trade, defence, and semiconductor technology – seemed to be overshadowed by a press briefing that exposed the fragility of New Delhi’s international communications apparatus.

Before Modi arrived at the official Dutch PM’s residence, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten told local reporters that the Netherlands and other EU member states held concerns about developments in India under Modi’s BJP.

Those concerns were then pressed directly onto the record by Ashwant Nandram of De Volkskrant at the official media briefing, as detailed by The Wire.

“I’m a journalist for the Dutch newspaper, De Volkskrant. I have a few questions. In the Netherlands, there is a tradition that after such a visit, both Prime Ministers are available for questions. I wonder what the reason is that that is not the case today. Another thing is that today during a statement of Prime Minister Jetten, he said that the Netherlands and the European Union are worried about, he said, press freedom and minority rights, among them the Muslim community and smaller communities. I wonder what the response is of the Indian government,” the journalist asked.

The Ministry of External Affairs’ Secretary (West), Sibi George, responded by impugning the questioner’s knowledge. “We face these kinds of questions basically because of the lack of understanding of the person who asked the question,” he said, before pivoting to familiar talking points: 1.4 billion people, 900 million smartphones, soaring voter turnouts, and a “5,000-year-old pluralistic heritage”.

The strategy unravelled. Merel Thie of NRC pointed out that the concerns Nandram had raised were his prime minister’s.

“My name is Merel Thie and I’m from the Dutch newspaper NRC. And as you were referring to my colleague, he was actually citing our Prime Minister who said he was worried about minorities and press freedom in India. So, does it upset you when our Prime Minister says this?”

George held his ground: “No, I was giving the factual position of that. So that remains to be the factual position. You need to have more understanding of India to appreciate what India is.”

Thie pressed further: “So, Prime Minister [Jetten] should have more understanding because it’s not something we say.”

George’s response appeared to be a retreat: “I haven’t seen that statement. I am referring to the question which, you know, about that topic which was raised about the freedom and I think I have clarified how beautiful a country India is. Thank you.”

A pattern

The Norway and Netherlands episodes are consistent with a communications posture Modi has maintained throughout his more than a decade in power: no open, unscripted press conferences, at home or abroad.

The last time Modi answered questions at an open bilateral press conference was his 2023 White House visit. When the Biden administration announced a joint press conference, a White House official described it to Reuters as a “big deal,” given Modi’s avoidance of press questions.

At that 2023 conference, a Wall Street Journal reporter asked: “India has long prided itself as the world’s largest democracy, but there are many human rights groups who say that your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics. What steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and to uphold free speech?”

Modi deflected to the Constitution. The journalist, Sabrina Siddiqui, subsequently faced a torrent of online harassment from Hindutva politicians and supporters severe enough that the Biden administration issued a formal condemnation.

India currently ranks 157th out of 180 countries on the 2026 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders on April 30 — behind Palestine, the UAE, and Cuba, as the Norwegian journalist pointedly noted.

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