New Delhi: Admitting that raking up foreign origin issue of Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not click for his party in elections, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi has obliquely criticised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's outbursts against her, saying it was a "mistake".

"Level of debate by those holding high constitutional posts should remain temperate and moderate," Joshi said in an interview to Karan Thapar's 'Tonight at 10' programme telecast on CNBC last night (May 27, 2004), when asked about Modi's remarks against Gandhi.

The language used by Modi was a "mistake", he admitted, when specifically asked about the Gujarat Chief Minister's remarks that Gandhi was not capable of being recruited for even a "clerk's job".

"People here don't like this (kind of language) as this is the tradition of the country," the former Human Resource Development Minister said.

Going further, he said it was not only Modi who indulged in such comments, but Gandhi herself had made "certain remarks" against Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the then Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh had also engaged in such unpleasantries.