Shashi Tharoor Backs PM Modi’s ‘Language Challenge’ in Fresh Tweet

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday publicly backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion that people learn a new word every day from an Indian language other than their own, despite criticism from colleagues, a party notice and jokes on social media over his earlier comments on the Prime Minister.

The tweet

The Thiruvananthapuram MP was responding to Modi’s video address at the Manorama News Conclave. Tharoor wrote that he welcomed “this departure from Hindi dominance” and would gladly take up the #LanguageChallenge. He then offered the word “pluralism”, along with its Hindi and Malayalam equivalents.

The earlier controversy

Tharoor had drawn criticism after supporting party colleague Jairam Ramesh, who had said it was wrong to “demonise the Prime Minister”. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee then sent him a notice.

In his reply to KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran, Tharoor said he had argued for six years that Modi should be praised when he got things right, to make criticism more credible. He urged the party to reflect on why the BJP had raised its vote share from 31% in 2014 to 37% in 2019, while the Congress stayed at about 19% in both elections, under 20%.

He wrote that enough voters clearly felt Modi was delivering something for them, and that the Congress should acknowledge this while highlighting its limits. As examples, he said 60% of the toilets built lacked running water and 92% of poor rural women who received gas cylinders could not afford refills. Treating Modi as having done nothing, he argued, would amount to calling voters stupid.

“I have been a strong critic of the Modi government and I hope a constructive one,” Tharoor wrote.

See also: Indian National Congress, Lok Sabha members.

Originally published on 30 August 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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