Gujarat Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi has claimed that Dr BR Ambedkar gave BN Rau, who was a Brahmin, credit for preparing the draft of Indian Constitution, PTI reported on Saturday.

Rau was the constitutional advisor to the Constituent Assembly, and prepared an initial draft after research. Ambedkar, who headed the drafting committee, prepared the detailed draft and is recognised as the “father of Indian Constitution”.

Trivedi, himself a Brahmin, made the remark while unveiling the second edition of “Mega Brahmin Business Summit” near Ahmedabad. The event was attended by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel. Trivedi said that eight out of nine Indian Nobel winners, including economist Abhijit Banerjee, were Brahmins.

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“Do you know that constitutions of 60 countries were studied and then our draft Constitution was prepared?” the Speaker said. “Do you know who presented that draft to Dr BR Ambedkar? We all take Dr BR Ambedkar’s name with respect when it comes to the Constitution. However, in his [Ambedkar’s] own words, the draft was prepared by BN Rau – Benegal Narsing Rau – a Brahmin.”

Trivedi claimed Brahmins always promote others. “It was Rau who kept Ambedkar ahead of him,” he added. “We are proud of Ambedkar because he admitted this during his speech in the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949. And I quote him: ‘The credit given to me does not really belong to me. It belongs to BN Rau.’”

Rupani, meanwhile, said the foundation of the Jan Sangh, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s forerunner, in the state was laid by three Brahmins – Chimanbhai Shukla, Suryakant Acharya and Ashok Bhatt, The Indian Express reported. “Most of these people on the dais are mostly from BJP,” he added. “The Brahmin community has always spoken about national interest, and because of that, the community has joined with the BJP and the RSS…”