Norwegian daily under fire for racist cartoon of PM Modi as snake charmer

Key points

• A Norwegian newspaper on Wednesday published a racist cartoon depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a snake charmer, triggering accusations reinforcing western stereotypes, amid a row over a journalist questioning the Prime Minister for allegedly avoiding queries India during his state visit to the European country.
• The illustration on Aftenposten showed him holding what appeared to be a fuel-station pipe shaped like a snake, alongside an opinion article reportedly titled "A clever and slightly annoying man".
• Text auto-translated from Norwegian.
• Read Full Story The controversy intensified amid a row over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s press briefing in Norway, where Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng publicly questioned why he did not take media questions during a joint appearance with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
• PM Modi did not respond to the query, but the exchange later drew a sharp rebuttal from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, represented by diplomat Sibi George....