Fact-Check: UN Secretary-General Did Not Praise Ambedkar and Indian Constitution

There is no proof which shows that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres spoke about Ambedkar and the Constitution.

The viral post has no proof to back the claim that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called India's Constitution, written by BR Ambedkar, the best in the world.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

Social media users are sharing posts that carry a purported statement by United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking about Dr BR Ambedkar and the Constitution of India.

The claim comes days after the G20 Summit's conclusion, which was held at New Delhi from 8 September. Guterres addressed the media at the beginning of the event.

What do the posts say?: According to the claim, Guterres said that he read Constitutions of all countries, but none of them come close to 'Babasaheb's' Constitution, referring to the Constitution of India.

• "If all countries adopt India's Constitution, there would be no poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and terrorism left in the world," it says.

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

We received this claim on our WhatsApp tipline as well.

(Archives of more claims can be seen here and here.)

But...?: There is no evidence to back the claim that the UN Secretary-General made any statement regarding Dr Ambedkar or the Indian Constitution.

How did we find out?: Using a simple keyword search, we looked for news reports or press statements on Guterres having spoken about Ambedkar, but did not come across anything.

• If the UN Secretary-General had made statements speaking positively about the Indian Constitution or BR Ambedkar, it would be widely covered by Indian media organisations.

The official website of the UN Secretary General hosts all statements made by Guterres, his predecessors, and the deputy Secretaries General.

• Here, we searched for mentions of Dr Ambedkar, but did not find anything related to Guterres.

• The only result for 'Ambedkar' showed us a statement by the UN's Deputy Secretary-General Amina J Mohammed, given at a panel in New York in April 2017.

The only result dates back to 2017 and shows UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J Mohammed's statement.

(Source: UN/Screenshot)

• At the event, Mohammed referred to Dr Ambedkar and spoke about his belief in equality for women and minorities. It made no mention of the Indian Constitution.

• Similarly, a search using 'India Constitution' as keywords did not show any relevant statements by Guterres.

While Guterres has spoken about India many times, with the latest instance being his speech at the G20 Summit in New Delhi on 8 September, we could not find any evidence of him mentioning the statements in the viral claim.

Social media profiles: We then went through Guterres' and the official UN Secretary General's social media profiles – such as on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram – to look for any posts or statements mentioning Ambedkar but found no results.

Conclusion: There are no records which support the claim that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called India's Constitution, written by BR Ambedkar, the best Constitution.

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