A weak Manmohan Singh, means a weak India: Mulayam Singh

Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday dubbed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a nice man with no independence to run his government the way he wanted to.

He asked that if the Prime Minister of the country did not have the independence to take decisions, how is it possible to run the country?

"If the Prime Minister shows that he is weak, then the country will be weak too," says Yadav.

Yadav's comments about the PM come at a time Singh's nine-year tenure at the helm of the UPA government has come under sharp scrutiny, even from within the Congress.

A growing chorus of political figures and commentators have crticised Singh for being unable to assert his authority over a government whose functioning has been hobbled by a series of scams, a lacklustre economy and policy paralysis.

The latest criticism, this time from an ally, albeit a restive one, will underscore the growing tensions between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, one of the two UP parties on whose support the UPA government survives.

Mulayam was speaking to the Economic Times in a rare interview spanning 90 minutes at his Lucknow residence.

He also criticized the Congress of following flawed domestic, economic and foreign policies while sidestepping pointed questions on the government's longevity or the timing of the next elections.

He did not specifically criticize Congress president Sonia Gandhi or the BJP leadership.

Asked why he skipped UPA-II's fourth anniversary dinner, he said that he could not participate in a function to extol the achievements of the Congress-led government, when the truth was anything but that.

Yadav criticised UPA's foreign policy, especially its handling of China, and ruled out any truck with BJP, which he blamed for damaging Indian politics.

He was also dismissive of Narendra Modi's achievements, stating that the Gujarat chief minister was a media creation.

Defending Yadav's view, fellow SP leader Naresh Agarwal said that his party stands against corruption and wouldn't support the UPA in any act of corruption.

"The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is heavily embroiled in controversies and is corrupt and its image is maligned with constant cases of corruption emerging. Our party purposely also didn't go to the UPA dinner, when the prime minister presented the government's report card because of its corrupt image. We are with the government only when it works for the people and not when it acts against them," he said.

Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP) offers outside support to the Congress Party-led, United Progressive Alliance (UPA), and seen as a key support after two of its allies, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) parties pulled out.