Jurist and former Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Jethmalani on Saturday announced his retirement from the legal profession, PTI reported. Jethmalani, 94, has been a lawyer for more than seven decades.

“I am here just to tell you I am retiring from the profession but I am taking on a new role as long as I am alive,” he said at a function organised by the Bar Council of India in honour of new Chief Justice Dipak Misra. “I wish to combat the corrupt politicians that have been brought into the position of power and I hope India’s condition will improve.”

Jethmalani claimed that the National Democratic Alliance government had let down the people just like its predecessor, the United Progressive Alliance. He called the present condition of governance in the country a “calamity”. “The country is not in a good shape. The previous and the current governments, both have let down the nation very badly,” Jethmalani said. “It is the duty of the members of the bar and all good citizens to rise to this great calamity.”

He said that those in positions of power in the country should be “shown the exit door” as soon as possible. “The Bar and the judiciary must unite to throw out corrupt people. This will be my job from now on,” he said, according to Bar and Bench.