Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday welcomed the Indo-US nuclear deal passed by the US Senate but qualified it by saying that the Congress and the UPA would not accept anything that was outside the July 18 agreement.

"I don't know what position the Government will take. But the bill will have to be reconciled at the joint meeting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The position of the Congress party and the UPA is that nothing will be accepted which is outside the July 18 agreement...We sincerely hope that all those areas which are not acceptable to us are not included in the bill. Only then will we welcome it," Sonia said.

The Congress chief was responding to a question after addressing the Fourth Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on "India: The Next Global Superpower?" in which she underlined that India's "external strength" will derive from the country's internal cohesion and the manner in which "we nurture our secular values and strengthen our capacity to manage our diversities in harmony."

"India's standing in the world will be determined by the extent to which the weaker sections of our society lead a life of security and dignity at home....India's global pre-eminence will come not from faster GDP growth alone. It will depend crucially on how fast we expand productive employment opportunities, achieve universal literacy and improve the quality of primary health care," she said, making a strong pitch for inclusive growth in her fourth consecutive address to the HT Summit.

The basic thrust of Sonia's 45-minute speech and her response to questions was that she would not like India to become a global "superpower" that evokes images of hegemony, aggression, power politics, military might and division and conflict. It instead should be a "global force" that is synonymous with "peace, progress and prosperity" which is innate to the Indian spirit.

"During long periods of our past, India exercised a profound influence on the course of world history, and it did so without exercising any kind of overt power. Consider, for instance, how Gandhiji, mocked as `a half-naked fakir' by the British, took on the superpower of the day through the mere force of his values and ideas," she told an audience that included diplomats, bureaucrats and leaders of the industry.

Among the politicians present on the occasion was her son Rahul Gandhi and Union ministers PR Dasmunshi, Murli Deora, Ambika Soni, Praful Patel and T Subbarami Reddy.

To underscore the point, Sonia quoted a dialogue from a Peter Sellers film, "The Party", in which the protagonist who hailed from India -- when asked sarcastically "Who do you think you are" -- spoke up with confidence: "In India, we don't think who we are, we know who we are."

Unlike earlier occasions when she had to face political questions, this time, the Congress chief was only asked whether she envisaged a role for her son in the organisation and whether she saw free and fair elections taking place in Uttar Pradesh.

"I am always too happy to include him in the party or government. But it is for him to decide," she said while Rahul smiled.

As to the question whether there could be free elections in UP, Sonia replied: "You being a journalist, will probably be better informed. Take a short trip to UP and you will get an answer from the people."

But to another query, she took note of the "usual pressure" by the Uttar Pradesh administration. "Past experience in UP at the time of elections, including the latest polls, has not been very happy. But we will fight that," she said, noting that her party's performance hasn't been too bad: "It is a good sign...we can pick up."

In her speech, Sonia recognised the remarkable achievements made by the Indian economy, including the country's entrepreneurs and industrialists, while drawing attention to "other realities" that needed to be addressed. "A nation of bursting opportunities is also a land of perpetual struggles. A country of dazzling prosperity is also a country of dehumanising poverty...We have big, populous parts of the country that are yet to see the fruits of economic advance in substantial measure," she said.

She also made this point when quizzed on farmers' suicides: "Unless we are able to feed our people and assure a better future for the farmers, the country would not progress." At the same time, she said that it was not possible to improve the situation overnight and it would take a "little time" to address their problems.

Sonia made no direct reference to the BJP-NDA while remarking: "We have some areas of our country where economic growth has been tangible but where the social fabric has come under strain." But at one point, she emphasised that though there is intense political competition in the country, there is also a vast common ground which needs to be pursued.

"Differences are inevitable -- remember our DNA: 'The Argumentative Indian' -- but even so, basics can certainly be attended to in a more determined manner. Sustained pressure from civil society will undoubtedly strengthen this process," she said.

If the Congress chief spelt out the priorities of the political class, she also focused on the special responsibilities of the privileged sections. "People who benefit from the process of economic growth cannot be oblivious of their obligations to the state," she said. She reiterated this when, in response to a query, she talked about the role the private sector could play in education and skill development and utilisation of ex-servicemen for monitoring implementation of government schemes, including the job guarantee programme.

And while on the point of growth of consumer class, she again quoted Mahatma Gandhi: "There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not enough for even one man's greed." Though she made it clear that she was not suggesting that everyone should adopt the Mahatma's standards, in her view there was "room for greater austerity and less conspicuous consumption among the affluent, especially among those who are in public life."

"On a long and arduous journey, you don't see only how far you have come; you focus on how far you have yet to go," she said, as she put a perspective to India's achievements down the years, including the laying of the democratic and secular foundations of the country, the green revolution, progress in IT and changes made in economic policy and redirecting policies to meet new challenges. "While embracing the change, we should not fall prey to hindsightis and condemn whatever we have done earlier," she added.

But it was her final advise that spelt out the future for the country. "Let us not get too obsessed with acquiring superpower status. More and more successes will come our way. They will surely give us the global role that we seek and that we are perfectly equipped to fulfill," she said.

A collective and sustained effort at harnessing the reservoir of potential, energy and talent will help the country's genius to flower. "Only then we will be a superpower, if you really like to use this term, but we will be so in the true Indian sense and spirit."