Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng says India cancelled her visa before Congress’s Bharat Summit in Hyderabad

Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng Svendsen says India’s Home Ministry cancelled her visa on the eve of her flight to Hyderabad, bhadas4media reported on Thursday. The Helle Lyng visa row involves the Bharat Summit, which Congress is hosting in the city on 13 and 14 November. None of the reports NIS read carried a response from the ministry.

What Helle Lyng said about the Home Ministry visa

Lyng was due to speak as a panellist on media and press freedom at the summit, bhadas4media said. On 11 November she posted a video on X saying she already held the Indian visa and was to fly the next morning. Then, in her words, “orders from above” led the Home Ministry to cancel it.

In a second post she said the Indian embassy in Norway was not at fault. She wrote that the ministry had stopped her at the last stage even though she had the visa and political clearance for the conference, according to the report.

Key numbers

• 13 and 14 November: the dates of the second Bharat Summit in Hyderabad, per ThePrint.
• About 1,000 delegates from 70 countries are expected, per ThePrint.
• Norway ranks first in the World Press Freedom Index and India 157th, per bhadas4media.

Bharat Summit Hyderabad and the earlier row

Congress leader Salman Khurshid said progressive parties from India’s neighbouring countries would not attend because of the Ministry of External Affairs’ policy, ThePrint reported on 10 November. Congress is also in the news over Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, as our report on Belonging noted.

Lyng first drew attention in May, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Oslo for the India-Nordic summit. She asked him, “Prime Minister Modi, why don’t you take some questions from the freest press in the world?” and he walked out of the room, Al Jazeera reported. The Indian Embassy told her afterwards that she was “most welcome to come and ask your questions” at its own briefing, PTI reported via Telangana Today.

What happens next for the Helle Lyng visa case

The summit opens on Friday. The Home Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry have not been quoted on the visa, so the official reason for the cancellation is not yet public. Lyng’s account rests on her own posts on X as relayed by one outlet.