In the middle of his three-city visit to the United States, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has talked about a range of topics including press freedom, his disqualification from the Lok Sabha, opposition unity along with taking jibes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a recent interaction at the National Press Club in Washington DC, Gandhi explained how a state party in Kerala, Indian Union Muslim League, is not a non-secular party.

"Muslim League is a completely secular party. There is nothing non-secular about Muslim League. I think the person (who sent the question) has not studied the Muslim League," Gandhi said.

Rahul Gandhi's earlier statements have already stirred criticism from the BJP, his comment on the Muslim League drew more flak, leading to a considerable war of words between the ruling party and the Opposition Congress.

Who has opposed the statement?

Drawing parallels between IUML and founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah's political party All India Muslim League, Union minister Kiren Rijiju called Gandhi's comment ‘extremely unfortunate’.

“Jinnah's Muslim League is a secular party? The party responsible for India's partition on religious lines is a secular party? Extremely unfortunate that some people in India still consider the person who supports the Muslim League as Secular!” he tweeted.

BJP's Amit Malviya also criticised Gandhi on the same lines and called him a person who is ‘poorly read’ and ‘disingenous and sinister’.