"All leaders own a house in Bengaluru. Why you have not taken a house here? Given your connections, getting a site shouldn't be a problem," a journalist asked me once.

"I always believed that we should be role models as representatives of people. I had purchased a site with a house when I was practicing as a lawyer. This is sufficient for my needs. I don't aspire for another house.", was my reply.

When I was elected as MP for the first time, the then Chief Minister Devaraj Urs offered to allot a large site for me in Sadashiva Nagar in Bengaluru alongside the sites allotted to H D Devegowda and Ramakrishna Hegde. But I refused the accept the offer.

Urs repeatedly asked me to take a site. But I refused it every time. He called me once and in a fit of anger, he scolded saying ''You are a crazy fellow''. It was a prime area and now it is worth crores of rupees.

I could have owned a house in Delhi also. The Union Government proposed a site to me. But I stuck to my earlier stand. Even after being in power as a minister for 8 years, this value system never got diluted. It is said that one's conscience is the softest pillow in the world. And this is one of the reasons for my peaceful life.