The Indian leader\u2019s trip was aimed at boosting economic ties, but was overshadowed by questions on democracy and a racist cartoon<\/p>\n
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up a five\u2011nation European tour this week with upgraded Nordic partnerships and new trade, security and research agreements. Yet a single incident in Oslo once again raised uncomfortable questions about how the West sees India.
\nModi embarked on a six-day European tour, signaling India is keen on diversifying its partnerships amid global disruptions caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.
\nAfter a brief stop in Abu Dhabi, where he signed a massive infrastructure and energy deal, Modi proceeded to the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Italy, with an itinerary running from May 15 to 20. The mission was to deepen India\u2019s partnership with Europe following the recently concluded India-EU Free Trade Agreement which, according to Ursula von der Leyen, will be formally signed and operationalized by the end of the year.
\nWhy did Modi go to Europe?
\nThe culmination of Modi\u2019s six-day tour was supposed to be the top-level Nordic summit in Oslo, where India and the five Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark) would discuss ways to expand strategic and trade ties.
\nAccording to a statement by India\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs, the summit would \u201cimpart a more strategic dimension to India\u2019s relationship with the Nordic countries, especially in technology and innovation, green transition and renewable energy, sustainability, blue economy, defense, space and the Arctic.\u201d
\nIn The Hague, Modi met Dutch King Willem-Alexander, along with his wife, Queen Maxima, discussing defense issues, semiconductors, green hydrogen, and water management. In Stockholm, Modi met the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.
\nIn Norway, the third edition of the India-Nordic summit took place. In 2024, India signed a trade and economic partnership agreement which eliminates the majority of customs duties on industrial products with Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. The pact also has a commitment to invest $100 billion in India, which is expected to lead to 1 million new jobs over the next 15 years.
\nThis time around, energy was one of the top issues on the agenda as India, one of the major global importers of oil and gas, is facing an increasing impact from the Middle East crisis on its energy supplies.
\nModi pointed out that bilateral trade between India and the Nordic nations had increased fourfold in the past ten years, and that investment from the Nordic nations into India had gone up by an impressive 200%.<\/p>\n
PM @narendramodi participated in the 3rd India-Nordic Summit in Oslo. It reflected the expanding scope and growing strength of India\u2019s partnership with the Nordic region. The leaders discussed cooperation in sustainability, innovation, clean energy, emerging technologies and\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/xXUO1YsgZF\u2014 PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 19, 2026 <\/p>\n
The Norwegian king, Harald V, awarded Modi his country\u2019s highest civilian award, the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit Grand Cross, making it the 32nd such international recognition bestowed upon him and the second on this particular tour, after the Swedish Royal Order of the Polar Star.
\nBut those were not the issues that made headlines during Modi\u2019s stay in Oslo.
\nWhat Happened in Oslo?
\nIt all started on Tuesday, when a video of Svendsen Helle Lyng, a journalist for the Norwegian newspaper\u00a0Dagsavisen, started doing the rounds on social media. In the video, Lyng was seen throwing a question to Modi just as he finished his joint press statement with his Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Gahr Store.\u00a0\u201cPrime Minister\u00a0Modi,\u00a0why don\u2019t you take\u00a0some\u00a0questions\u00a0from the freest\u00a0press\u00a0in the world?\u201d she shouted across the room. Lyng then seemed to have followed\u00a0Modi\u00a0to the elevator.<\/p>\n
Primeminister of India, Narendra Modi, would not take my question, I was not expecting him to. 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\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/vZHYZnAvev\u2014 Helle Lyng (@HelleLyngSvends) May 18, 2026 <\/p>\n
In another video, Lyng could be heard\u00a0asking the Norwegian PM to answer questions from the Indian press:\u00a0\u201cWhy don\u2019t you take questions from Indian journalists? Show them how we do this in Norway.\u201d
\nThe Indian\u00a0mission in Norway shared Lyng\u2019s post on X and\u00a0invited her\u00a0to a press briefing, saying she was \u201cmost welcome\u201d to ask her questions there. At the briefing, she\u00a0pressed the Indian foreign ministry\u2019s secretary, Sibi George, on why\u00a0should\u00a0Norway have trust in India.
\n\u201cWhy should we trust you (India)? Can you try to stop the human rights violations that goes on in your country?\u201d she asked.
\nGeorge\u00a0delivered a longish response, delving into India\u2019s ancient traditions and history, highlighting the country\u2019s vastness and complexity, which is often misunderstood by foreign observers. He argued that critics lack an understanding of the country\u2019s actual scale, noting that\u00a0the capital city alone has at least 200 television channels operating in English, Hindi, and various other languages.\u00a0He also dismissed criticisms of India\u2019s democratic record,\u00a0pointing out such opinions often rely\u00a0on selective reports from \u201cgodforsaken, ignorant NGOs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Journalist: Why should Norway trust India? Will you stop human rights violations in your country?Amb. Sibi George: *starts to answer*Journalist: *interrupts*Amb. George: No, you asked me a question. Let me answer it pic.twitter.com\/hjT4dC75tW\u2014 Shashank Mattoo (@MattooShashank) May 19, 2026 <\/p>\n
Lyng\u2019s posts on X set off a storm in India. Social media erupted, Western outlets praised her, and Indian TV channels hauled her on air for tough questioning.<\/p>\n
#TheBuckStopsHere with @GaurieD #NDTVExclusive | Is racism & stereotyping what masquerades as journalism in Norway?Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng (@HelleLyngSvends) responds to questions on press freedom and racism in media narratives in Norway. pic.twitter.com\/utCojsylf1\u2014 NDTV (@ndtv) May 20, 2026 <\/p>\n
But then the matter got even worse.
\nWhy Indians called out a \u2018racist\u2019 cartoon
\nAftenposten, Norway\u2019s largest newspaper, published an opinion piece by journalist Frank Rossavik. The article includes a cartoon of Modi as a snake charmer. The headline says, \u201cA clever and slightly annoying man.\u201d The cartoon has set social media on fire.
\nThe cartoon was originally published on May 16 but came to light only after Modi\u2019s visit to Oslo. Numerous social media comments call the cartoon and the opinion piece \u201cderogatory,\u201d\u00a0\u201cracist\u201d and \u201cutterly disgraceful.\u201d
\n\u201c[The] West has completely run out of structural arguments. When they cannot beat India on GDP growth rates, cannot match India\u2019s digital public infrastructure, and cannot stop India from anchoring global supply chains, their only remaining tool is to pull out a racist drawing of a snake charmer,\u201d wrote\u00a0one X user.<\/p>\n
Shocking. Racist. Derogatory.Norway\u2019s largest broadsheet newspaper Aftenposten brazens it out with a shocking cartoon depicting Indian PM @narendramodi as a Snake Charmer with the headline: \u201cA sneaky and slightly annoying man\u201d.They can\u2019t digest India\u2019s rise and success. Pity! pic.twitter.com\/g905xHNIWm\u2014 Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) May 19, 2026 <\/p>\n
Commentators in India also pointed out that the image chosen for the cartoon is particularly offensive because it reflects on Modi\u2019s famous 2014 statement that India is no longer a nation of \u201csnake charmers\u201d but a modern nation of \u201cmouse charmers,\u201d driven by technology and innovation. The snake charmer is one of the oldest racist colonial clich\u00e9s used against India, and it not only mocks the leader but the nation, many commenters pointed out.
\n\u201cHow many more decades will the West continue to look at India through the exhausted lens of snake charmers, cows, fakirs and colonial fantasy before somebody in its supposedly enlightened liberal establishment realizes the joke stopped being funny a century ago?\u201d Stela Dey wrote in her column for\u00a0The Print.
\nWhy is the West obsessed with India\u2019s democracy?
\nDeveloped countries have long commented on the state of democracy in India, the world\u2019s most populous democracy, highlighting issues related to press freedom and the treatment of minorities. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and the US State Department consistently call out India in their reports for alleged \u201congoing and egregious religious freedom violations.\u201d
\nNew Delhi has repeatedly rejected such reports, calling them \u201cbiased.\u201d
\nWhen EU\u00a0chief von der Leyen traveled to New Delhi in February this year and pressed\u00a0India to agree in general on a deal with the bloc \u2013 which she\u00a0calls \u201cthe mother of all deals\u201d \u2013 European commentators could not refrain from raising the question of India\u2019s \u201cdemocratic backsliding\u201d as a stumbling block to expanding this potential cooperation.
\n\u201cEurope is very Eurocentric in its vision. They view everything from the European lens of how it helps their national interest. So they were not very supportive of issues of the Global South, of strategic autonomy, of the path of development. They have a kind of method of intervening in other countries, which India and countries of the Global South do not,\u201d Professor Anuradha Chenoy told RT India, commenting on the Norwegian episode during Modi\u2019s European tour.<\/p>\n
‘EU Has A Trust Deficit With Everyone Apart From Themselves’ – Professor Anuradha Chenoy Europe is very euro-centric in its vision and they seem everything through a European lens of how it helps their national interest, she tells RT India Presenter @osamashaab. pic.twitter.com\/TEx8LZ1Iju\u2014 RT_India (@RT_India_news) May 19, 2026 <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, back in Norway, some commentators, too, questioned why local media chose to mock the leader of a nation of 1.4 billion people and the world\u2019s fourth largest economy.
\n\u201cUnless you believe democracy only fits a handful of small, homogenous, ultra-rich Western nations, India is the miracle of democracy. The large, complex, linguistically and religiously diverse nation with many poor people \u2013 which has established a vibrant democracy and is much less violent than Europe or America,\u201d\u00a0wrote former Norwegian minister Erik Solheim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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