Shashi Tharoor, the Congress leader well-known for his impressive command of English, found himself in an unexpected situation this week. The man who can make dictionary writers nervous with his word choices had to switch to Hindi when faced with a particularly creative social media user.
The Original Post That Started It All
I hear some people are accusing India of being “recalcitrant“. I say, far better to be recalcitrant, than to be tractable, submissive or acquiescent to injustice.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 14, 2025
On Thursday, August 14, Shashi Tharoor responded to a recent comment made by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about India. The Treasury Secretary had called India “recalcitrant” during trade discussions, which didn’t sit well with the Thiruvananthapuram MP.
Shashi Tharoor fired back on X with his characteristic linguistic flair:
“I hear some people are accusing India of being recalcitrant. I say far better to be recalcitrant than to be tractable, submissive, or acquiescent to injustice.”
Shashi Tharoor used sophisticated vocabulary to make a strong political point while defending India’s position on international matters.
The Comment That Left Everyone Speechless
That’s fine Shashi but what about the abnegation of camaraderie in the egregious enfranchise that comes from the fatuous of the grandiloquent at the behest of impecunious and insidious semaphore?
— Sagar (@sagarcasm) August 14, 2025
While most users praised the leader for standing up to criticism, one social media user decided to test the politician’s famous command over the English language. The user wrote:
“That’s fine, Shashi, but what about the abnegation of camaraderie in the egregious enfranchise that comes from the fatuous of the grandiloquent at the behest of impecunious and insidious semaphore?”
And this response was essentially a collection of big dictionary words strung together without any meaning. It was a playful challenge to see how Shashi would react to it.
Shashi Tharoor’s Surprising Response
. Bhai aap kya kehna chahte ho? @sagarcasm
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 14, 2025
Instead of trying to decode the meaningless but impressive-sounding sentence, Shashi Tharoor chose the most relatable response possible. And that was the first time we had seen Shashi Tharoor replying in simple Hindi:
“Bhai aap kya kehna chahte ho?”
Shashi Tharoor’s response immediately went viral, showing that sometimes you just need to ask for clarification in the simplest way possible. The guy also replied in Hindi ,saying,
मैं यह कह रहा था कि सांविधिक विमर्श की अव्यवस्थित प्रासंगिकता, जब असंगत विचार-विन्यास के अप्रत्याशित परिणति-चक्र में संलयित हो जाती है, तब उसका दार्शनिक प्रत्यूत्तर भी अनिर्वचनीय निष्प्रयोजनता के व्यूह में ही गुम हो जाता है।
— Sagar (@sagarcasm) August 14, 2025
The interesting reactions to Shashi Tharoor’s reply:
One person commented, “Bro made Shashi type in Hindi.”
The second one said, “Shashi Tharoor finally found a worthy opponent.”
Shashi Tharoor ko bhi na samajh aane wali english bolne ka ghamand hai @sagarcasm pic.twitter.com/v4fuZOTE4z
— WhoamI (@dactardoom) August 14, 2025
Sagar Bhai vs Shashi Tharoor 😭 pic.twitter.com/APKQ4pPzB0
— Gagan🇮🇳 (@1no_aalsi_) August 14, 2025
Even one of the users asked the AI chatbot Grok to translate the confusing comment into the simplest language, and here is what Grok’s response was:
“Grok is delighted to elucidate: sagarcasm’s ostensibly profound query exemplifies a satirical abnegation of coherence, juxtaposing egregious verbosity with fatuous grandiloquence to parody the insidious semaphore of impecunious rhetoric, thereby enfranchising camaraderie through humorous abjuration. In essence, it’s delightful nonsense.”
Even the AI confirmed what everyone suspected: the original comment was just fancy words.
With over 500,000 views and countless shares, this response by Tharoor has become one of those rare social media moments that people will indeed remember. It showed that even the most serious political discussion can have lighter moments, and sometimes the best response to confusion is simply asking, “What are you trying to say?”
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