Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan this weekend added to the simmering caste tensions by wondering aloud whether reservations could bring welfare to the country and claiming Babasaheb Ambedkar had envisaged quotas only for a decade.

Speaking at an event in Ranchi on Sunday, she made it a point to begin her reference to reservations with the clarification that “I am not saying quotas should be stopped.”

The disclaimer, however, got drowned in the furore over what she went on to say: that Ambedkar believed reservations were needed for only 10 years.

“But that did not happen and we extend reservation every 10 years. At one point, it was extended for 20 years. But has reservation brought welfare to the country?’’ she asked.

She was given a fact check with those within and outside the political class stressing that the 10-year limit was for seat reservations for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Parliament and the state legislatures.

“Madam Speaker, the 10-year limit that you mentioned for quotas was for legislatures, not government jobs,” former Bihar deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav tweeted. “A person occupying a constitutional post should not knowingly mislead the country. Nobody has the courage to touch this (reservations).”

Ambedkar’s grandson and former Lok Sabha MP Prakash Ambedkar added that the job quotas provided in Article 16(4) of the Constitution were a fundamental right. “It is a permanent feature of the Constitution.

Retired bureaucrat P.S. Krishnan said Ambedkar had agreed to the 10-year limit for legislature quotas because of resistance from some powerful people. “Ambedkar had to concede on this count because of the opposition but can discrimination going back centuries end in a decade?’’

As for Mahajan’s question whether reservation had helped achieve the goal of equality, Krishnan flagged the report of the Justice Venkatachalaiah Commission to review the working of the Constitution.

“That report cited a number of measures to achieve equality but they have not been taken up by any government. With respect to the Speaker’s position, I appeal to her to read the report of the commission, set up by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.’’

Ashok Bharti of the All India Ambedkar Mahasabha said it was unfortunate that the Speaker was not aware of the constitutional position.

He said her latest remark on quotas -– and her comment last month likening reservations to a chocolate given to a child – had added to the fears of the historically disadvantaged communities because of the constitutional office she holds.