Shashi Tharoor often baffles social media with his linguistic skills.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, whose vocabulary often leaves social media users scrambling for their dictionaries, has taken up Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "language challenge" and has put out his first word in three languages. He said that PM Modi's suggestion that all Indians learn one word a day in any Indian language is a "departure from Hindi dominance" in the country.

"Pluralism" is the word tweeted in English, Hindi and Malayalam by Mr Tharoor who said he will tweet a word daily.

PM Modi today spoke on India's language diversity and said language is a force multiplier. "India is perhaps the only country in the world with so many languages. In a way it is a force multiplier. But language has also been exploited by selfish interests to create artificial walls in the country to divide," he said, addressing the Malayala Manorama News Conclave in Kochi via video conferencing.

Ok here's part of my #LanguageChallenge: there are often better options for a particular word. Pluralism is better translated in Malayalam as (bahuswarata, many voices) than as (many things). — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 30, 2019

"We can simply start with publishing one word in 10 to 12 different languages spoken across the country. In a year, a person can learn over 300 new words in different languages," PM Modi said.

Mr Tharoor later tweeted what he said was a better translation for "pluralism". "Pluralism is better translated in Malayalam as bahuswarata (many voices) than as bahuvachanam (many things)," he said.

Mr Tharoor, a three-time Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram constituency, often baffles social media with his linguistic skills. He is known for his sense of humour and sarcasm.

On his official website, Shashi Tharoor is described as a person who "was a pioneer in using social media as an instrument of political interaction." Till 2013, he was India's most-followed politician on Twitter, until being overtaken that year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his website says.