When I went to Andhra Pradesh, none other than the State Government led by N T Rama Rao opposed the Loan Mela. Facing protests had become a routine thing for me those days. Even in Karnataka, which was ruled by Ramakrishna Hegde of Janata Party, I had to face lot of resistance to Loan Mela programme. They stopped Tehsildars from extending official help to this programme. I used this as a weapon to attack State Government. "The State Government is opposing giving loans to the poor. Is it right?" I used to ask the crowd and their response was amazing.

Around the same time, Karnataka Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde entrusted noted journalist M V Kamath to write a book on Loan Mela. I don't find any fault with Kamath as he was only a writer of the book and content was provided by some others. The book was distributed across the Nation. There was a write-up against me also. That book is available at Parliament library even now. The book had compiled all the editorials written opposing Loan Mela. But I did not care and continued with my work with more conviction as people of the country were behind me. I still remember the day when we had disbursed loan to a record 66,000 women in Mangaluru and 1.6 lakh people in Bengaluru.