When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a two-day visit to Norway in May 2026, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a dig, asking if Norway agreed to his “personal request” to remove Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani from the pension fund blacklist. Weeks later, controversial Norwegian journalist Hella Lyng Svends said that there were no discussions about Adani between Norway and the Indian delegation.
On 19th May, Rahul Gandhi published an X post wherein he shared a picture of news reports from 27th February saying “Norway’s sovereign wealth fund drops Adani Green Energy from its portfolio” and May 18 saying “PM Modi begins historic Norway visit – the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 43 years”.
Gandhi was so desperate to attack PM Modi that he did not even care to check that the image he shared on his social media accounts contained the flag of Sweden instead of Norway. “We get very good information these days. Modi ji, did Norway agree to your personal request to remove Adani from their pension fund black list?” Rahul Gandhi posted.
We get very good information these days.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 19, 2026
Modi ji, did Norway agree to your personal request to remove Adani from their pension fund black list? pic.twitter.com/UK9PKD514r
Quoting this post on 9th June, Helle Lyng, the Norwegian journalist who gained the support of the Indian opposition and liberals online for attempting to heckle PM Modi after a joint briefing during his visit to Norway, has debunked Gandhi’s lies.
Lyng said that in the days following PM Modi’s visit to Norway, she asked the Norwegian government whether the Indian delegation had discussed Gautam Adani and his companies with them. She said that the countries held no discussions before, during or after PM Modi’s visit to Norway.
“So I asked the government about this in the days following the visit from Modi. The Norwegian government says that Adani and his companies were NOT a part of the conversations they had with the Indian delegation before, during or after the visit,” Lyng posted.
Did the Norway pension fund ‘remove’ Adani from its black list?
Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi claimed that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the Government Pension Fund Global, managed by the Norges Bank Investment Management or NBIM, “removed” Gautam Adani from its pension fund black list.
However, the world’s largest stock market investor did not ‘remove’ Adani or his companies from any blacklist. Between May 2024 and February 2026, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund excluded more Adani companies.
In May 2024, the NBIM excluded Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. (APSEZ), citing a supposed “unacceptable risk that the company contributes to serious violations of individuals’ rights in situations of war or conflict.” In February 2026, the sovereign wealth fund of Norway announced the exclusion of Adani Green Energy Ltd. (AGEL) over what it described as concerns of “gross corruption or other serious financial crime.”
This decision was reportedly taken in November 2025, though announced in February 2026.
It must also be recalled that in February 2023, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global divested its stakes in three Adani companies, citing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks. The Government Pension Fund Global had stakes in Adani Total Gas valued at $83.6 million, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone at $63.4 million, and Adani Green Energy shares worth $52.7 million.
The decision came when Gautam Adani was grappling with the aftermath of the hit job by the now-dissolved US-based short seller. Over the past few years, Norway has consistently been severing all ties with Gautam Adani and his companies.
Did PM Modi visit Norway to lobby for lifting sanctions on Adani?
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “personally request” remark against PM Modi suggested that the Indian Prime Minister went to Norway on an official visit as a lobbyist for Gautam Adani. Linking the NBIM-managed pension fund’s exclusion of Adani companies to PM Modi’s visit, Rahul Gandhi, the entire anti-Modi cabal furthered the ‘compromised PM’ bogey.
Contrary to the opposition’s claims that PM Modi visited Norway to seek favours for his ‘friend’ Adani, just weeks after the Norway pension fund action, PM Modi’s May 2026 three-nation Europe tour was originally planned for May 2025.
As per the original plan, PM Modi was scheduled to travel to Croatia, Norway and the Netherlands from 13th to 17th May 2025. However, the visit was cancelled in view of Operation Sindoor against Islamic terror and military establishments in Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack.
Eventually, PM Modi’s visit to three European nations was rescheduled for May 2026. Even though the allegation that an Indian Prime Minister would plan a foreign visit to lobby for any individual, in itself, is outrageous. PM Modi’s Norway visit had nothing remotely to do with Adani, his companies and the action taken by the Government Pension Fund Global.
Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global has been acting against Gautam Adani’s companies from 2022 onwards, and yet PM Modi has never intervened. It has been weeks since PM Modi returned from Norway, yet Norway’s pension fund has not removed Adani companies from its exclusion list.
Helle Lyng’s post that Adani and his companies were not a part of any official discussion between India and Norway before, during or after PM Modi’s visit only reinforces the obvious fact.
Notably, Lyng, who is associated with a lesser-known media house, Dagsavisen, had only 800+ followers, and her social media handle on X was fairly dead, with the last post from April 2024, before she heckled PM Modi and proudly posted about it.
As PM Modi was leaving the podium after making the statement, she asked, “Prime Minister Modi, why don’t you take some questions from the freest press of the world?” PM Modi did not answer and walked away with his counterpart. This was exactly what Lyng was hoping for. She said, “Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, would not take my question. I was not expecting him to.”
Helle Lyng gained Indian attention, criticism, support, media interviews, followers and a ‘hero’ status among the left liberal ecosystem in India. Since then, Lyng has given multiple interviews to leftist propaganda outlets and endorsed many, including The Wire. In one of the interviews, Lynd admitted that journalists were told not to ask questions during the joint briefing of PM Modi and Norway’s PM.
Lyng had even sought to interview Rahul Gandhi, who had, in May this year, shared Lyng’s gimmick during PM Modi’s visit and wrote, “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?”
The entire episode, Norway wealth fund excluding Adani companies, PM Modi’s visit and Rahul Gandhi’s ‘personal request’ jibe, shows how the opposition leaders twisted the timeline and causality into a conspiracy and then pushed the ‘compromised PM’ bogey.
Rahul Gandhi has consistently relied on screenshots, innuendos, and alarmist claims rooted in half-truths, often lies, to score short-term political points against PM Modi to lend credence to his sinister ‘Modani’, ‘compromised PM’ propaganda.
