Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng Svendsen said her Indian visa got cancelled on Wednesday before her flight to Hyderabad. She was invited to speak at the Bharat Summit this Friday. Svendsen suggested the move was politically motivated because she questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi about press freedom in May 2026.

A young Norwegian journalist who had last May asked a visiting Narendra Modi why he balked at facing the media has alleged her Indian visa was cancelled on Wednesday just as she was about to leave for the airport.

Helle Lyng Svendsen had been invited to Hyderabad to speak at the Bharat Summit, a global conclave of progressive politics, to be held by Telangana's Congress government on Friday and Saturday.

In a video on X addressed to Union home minister Amit Shah, Svendsen has suggested the visa cancellation was "politically motivated". She tied it to her act of accosting Modi at an Oslo news conference six months ago.

Svendsen, 28, had faced a huge backlash from Indian TV channels and Rightwing Netizens after she had asked the Indian Prime Minister: "Why don't you take some questions from the freest press in the world?"

Modi had walked away without answering.

In the video, Svendsen said: "I was ready to go. But as I was leaving for the airport, literally 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave, the Indian embassy in Norway calls me and they say, 'You can't go to India today'."

Svendsen added: "And I'm a little confused because I have political clearance. I have a visa. And I have a conference in Hyderabad, Telangana, waiting for me to arrive. I'm supposed to be a speaker there about media, about press freedom, about democracy, and how they're all intertwined....

"And that's where you come in, Amit Shah. Apparently, it's your department, the ministry of home affairs, that has said that I can't enter the country. And I don't understand why, but it does feel politically motivated.

"I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with the fact that I used my freedom of press back in May 2026 to question the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, here in Oslo, Norway."

Svendsen wondered whether the visa cancellation was related also to her criticism of "Adani and Ambani, two of Narendra Modi's alleged close friends" in her columns in the newspaper Dagsavisen, or to her recent interview with Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke.

She urged Shah to reconsider, given her talk in Hyderabad is scheduled for Saturday.

The home ministry did not react to Svendsen, who shared with The Telegraph screenshots of messages and an email from a man who identified himself as an official of the Indian embassy in Oslo.

"It is regret to inform yourself, visa bearing VK9830426 has been cancelled and is inelligible (sic) for travel," the email said. No reason was given.

Congress digital and social media head Supriya Shrinate told this newspaper: "The Indian government is seemingly scared of a 28-year-old journalist just because she posed a question to Mr Modi that explains to you their disdain for the free press.

"It also explains to you the kind of fear that Mr Modi and his government live under and actually, this is a huge, huge faux pas.... By denying her a visa, Mr Modi and his establishment have actually made this into a bigger international story.

"And it doesn't reflect on India very well. India is one of the strongest democracies in the world. For the Indian government to deny a journalist a visa because she had questioned Mr Modi tells you how far from reality he really is."

Tagging the Indian embassy in Norway, Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra said on X: "...as an MP I am ashamed that our government grants her a visa & then prevents her from travelling. Imagine if Norway had done this to any of us? Our ambassador @GloriaGangte should formally tell her bosses that this is not done."

A statement from the Editors Guild of India said: "Such actions smack of bureaucratic overreach and do immense harm to India's image as the world's largest democracy. Freedom of speech is one of the first principles that any functioning democracy abides by. It is also a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution under Article 19(1)(a).

"The EGI demands that the government disclose the reasons for the cancellation of Ms Lyng's visa. The Guild also demands that the cancellation be reversed and that Ms Lyng be allowed to present her views to the Indian people."

In an interview with this newspaper days after the Oslo controversy, Svendsen had said she would love to come to India but "I don't know if India would welcome me at this point".