Overheard
The eavesdroppers are bugging all and sundry, we hear. Rumour has it that The Great Khan’s on-again, off-again allies in the Land of Five Rivers were overheard complaining bitterly about the state of affairs. The Khan was told about it, and it’s said he called up the chief ally and asked him about the carping straight up. As expected, the conversation descended into unpleasantness, says our mole, and each party gave as good as they got. Sometime later, the chief ally’s son who’s a parliamentarian met The Great Khan and spoke about the needs of his constituency. We hear his dad, The Khan’s “ally” was most miffed and told his son off.
More surveillance
And in another yarn about surveillance, rumour has it that a close aide of The Great Khan was caught on tape criticizing the government’s brilliant performance. He’d been chatting on the phone to an acquaintance. When The Khan was shown evidence thereof, he was furious, we hear, and the aide fell from grace.
In a similar incident, a supplicant went to see a high official in his office in the capital. While there, he got a phone call from a friend of his, a gentleman who happens to be a prominent member of The Man of Steel’s party, a former minister. And since the official had worked with him, out of courtesy he asked his visitor to hand him the phone, so that he could say hello to the former minister. The two exchanged a few pleasantries, with the official careful not to say anything remotely controversial. End of conversation. A few days later, the official was asked a pointed question by a senior working in The Great Khan’s office. What was he doing talking on the phone to a prominent member of the Opposition? The official was flabbergasted. But then, so are we. With failure all around us, don’t these guys have anything better to do, other than listening in on the most innocuous conversations?