Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday, phoned finance minister Arun Jaitley to answer the Congress' charges of snooping on Rahul Gandhi. (Which is why it was Mr J who spoke on behalf of the government in Parliament today.)

For his part, Jaitley prepared himself by reading media reports on the issue and also received inputs from the Director of the Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi. 

Jaitley wrote out three paragraphs and got it approved by the Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, the details of what information Jaitley had been armed with were also 'communicated' to the Congress.

To ensure public opinion for the government, the Delhi police also briefed editors of TV channels and print media that the Rahul controversy was not an instance of snooping, but necessary fact checks to ensure security for the Congress vice-president.

Congress leaders admit in private that this brouhaha was because of the unnecessary hype created by Abhishek Singhvi's comment alluding to Rahul's profiling as one based on the Amit-Shah Gujarat model. They agreed that in this case, the Congress was wrong.