Criminalisation of politics strikes at the very root of democracy, by making the citizens suffer at the hands of those "who are nothing but a liability" to the country, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday. A five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra held that constitutional functionaries, who have taken pledge to uphold constitutional principles, were charged with the responsibility to ensure that the existing political framework does not get tainted with the "evil of corruption".