Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng has paid the price for questioning Narendra Modi in public. Indian authorities cancelled her Indian visa just hours before she was due to travel to a conference in India.
It happened on Wednesday. Lyng had been invited as a panel speaker at the Bharat Summit in Hyderabad, organised by the Telangana state government. She had political clearance from India’s Ministry of External Affairs for the conference and a valid single-entry visa. But just before she left for the airport in Oslo, the Indian embassy in Oslo called to tell her that her visa had been cancelled and she could no longer travel to India.
Expressing deep anger and frustration, Lyng said the Home Ministry’s decision over a few days at an ordinary conference was nothing but unjust and absurd. Indian authorities and the ministries concerned have not yet given any specific reason for cancelling the visa.
The decision is linked to an incident in May this year. During Modi’s visit to Norway, as he was leaving a joint press briefing without taking any questions, Lyng asked him directly why he would not take questions from the freest press in the world. She later also challenged Indian diplomats on human rights and on Modi’s practice of not holding press conferences.
According to Lyng’s video message and media reports, her visa was cancelled at the last minute because she had criticised the Modi government and raised questions about the Indian billionaires Adani and Ambani. Regretting the loss of what would have been her first trip to India, she said Indian journalist friends had warned her that Narendra Modi was a very vindictive man who does not easily forget.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report