Local decorators go on strike after their chairs came back broken from a political event. Decorators claim that this isn't the first time such an incident has taken place. Previously, on numerous occasions, the decorators had to suffer huge losses because of this.

"Last Sunday, at a local political rally, I supplied 200 brand new BFL plastic chairs," says Karim Chairwala, proprietor of Crimson Chairs. "When I got them back, almost half of them were broken. These rallies have been running me out of business. You supply chairs for people to sit on. Instead, they use the chairs as battering rams and beating sticks, hitting one another with them until they can knock themselves unconscious, breaking the chairs in the process."

Karim isn't the lone sufferer of this horror. There are others as well who have suffered the same fate, like Rahim Kedaramalik.

"Back in July, I received a request for 500 chairs for a local political milad," says Rahim. "I sent all the chairs in perfect condition and in due time. Alas, none of my precious chairs survived after the event."

"Apparently, the milad snack boxes did not include any sweetmeat, which is why the attendees decided to take out their rage on the organisers," adds Rahim. "They did so using my chairs. Some of them started throwing the chairs while others went full WWE and landed a few fatal chair shots on the organisers."

Rahim's manager, who was present at the milad, described the entire scene to us.

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"All was going well till someone opened the milad snack box and pointed out that they didn't have any laddus in them," said the manager. "Within seconds, our chairs took flight as people began throwing them at the organisers first, and then at each other."

To learn more about why people use the decorators' chairs to beat up others in these rallies, we reached out to some of the rally attendees.

"Chairs are the next weapons of mass destruction," said one.  "If we don't weaponise them, the other political parties will. So, it's only logical that we start the process before them."

Another said, "With the price of daily necessities going up every day, we can't afford to bring our own weapons. That's why we have to make do with whatever's available to us on the spot, which in this case are the chairs."

With decorators no longer willing to supply chairs at these events and rallies, organisers have decided to make everyone sit on the floor from now onwards. However, amidst rumours that people now plan on getting violent with each other with their bare hands, all future political rallies have been postponed till further notice.

Writer, sub-editor, and the digital co-ordinator at SHOUT. You can reach him at faisal.iqbal@thedailystar.net