Helle Lyng Svends, till yesterday was an unknown journalist 'working/commenting' for a Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen, official mouthpiece of the ruling Norwegian Labour Party.
She had just about 500 followers on social media platform X. Then she tried to heckle Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was addressing a joint press conference with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store.
"Prime Minister Modi, why don't you take some questions from the 'free-est' press in the world?" she shouted at the PM. Note her emphasis on "world's freest press", suggesting that in India press was not free, which she spelt out later on her X post.
Interestingly, Norwegian Prime Minister Store also did not answer any questions from the Indian journalists accompanying Prime Minister Modi.
The matter would have ended there only. But, Svends did not stop there, reportedly at the behest of others. She wrote on X, "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 with."
Nothing can be more outrageous than comparing freedom of press in India with that in dictatorships. In fact, the way a section of the media played up, glorified and celebrated Svend's heckling of the Prime Minister, probably no "freest country" will allow.
This post of Svend's on X has so far got 8 million views. Imagine, someone, initially with just 500 followers, getting 8 million views and over 23,000 reposts within a span of 20 hours! This is obviously not something normal. Those familiar with X would understand it better. Just because the post was insulting and denigrating towards the Prime Minister, some people in India grabbed the opportunity to amplify it. Her followers on X multiplied from 500 to over 23,000 within this period and these continue to grow fast.
No less a person than Leader of Opposition in Lok Sahba, Rahul Gandhi, reposted her tweet with a comment, saying, "when there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear. What happens to India's image when the world sees a compromised PM panic and run from a few questions?"
Rahul was obviously not the only one to repost, amplify and endorse Svend's post on the Prime Minister and the country. There were others, who always celebrate insulting the Prime Minister and the country.
It is ironic that the same people like Rahul, Mahua Moitra, Sagarika Ghose, Supriya Shrinate and many others are endorsing Svend's views on "press freedom" in India and placing the country along with Cuba, Palestine and Emirates at 157th rank in press freedom index, when they have no inhibition, hesitation or fear to celebrate heckling of the Prime Minister in a foreign country.
In an extreme symptom of pathological hatred towards Prime Minister Modi, these people rushed to amplify a poorly drafted post on X as it apparently provided them sadistic pleasure that someone somewhere was trying to insult the PM.
These same people in India, who were celebrating Svend's heckling of Prime Minister Modi for not answering her question, had not a single word to say about Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Store not answering the questions of the visiting Indian journalists.
Of course, Prime Minister Modi is answerable to the country and he must be questioned by the people and the press alike. The way the Norwegian journalist, celebrated by certain aggrieved Indians, tried to heckle the Prime Minister only justifies his avoiding such questions. The Prime Minister can answer questions, not a particular agenda.
After all, there is a dignity associated with the position Narendra Modi holds. He is the elected Prime Minister of a country of 1.4 billion people, not once but thrice. There has to be certain dignity and certain respect for that position, at least.
Prime Minister Modi is not necessarily answerable to every Tom, Dick and Harry who comes his way, not at least people like Svends posing as journalists. There has to be a certain degree of experience and competence to qualify to question the elected head of the government of a country of 1.4 billion people.
Those in India who are celebrating the heckling of their own Prime Minister are merely taking a sadistic pleasure in it. It does them no good. It does no good to anyone. It only betrays the self-denigrating mind-set of those people who take pride and pleasure in maligning their own country and its leader just because they are opposed to him. These people have taken political rivalry to the extreme limits of obnoxious hatred.