Not even the unwillingness of Karan Singh, the high-profile president of the Indo-French Forum, to attend one of its meetings in Paris last week, because he wanted to focus his energies on his own contest against Atal Behari Vajpayee in Lucknow. Singh wanted the Forum meeting postponed, but other equally zestful members were having none of it.

Until, Lalita Oraon. The incident over the alleged assault of an Indian maid in Paris recently by her own diplomat-employer, has both capitals moving quickly to cap the damage. Officials in both governments are now saying that the Lalita Oraon case is an ``aberration''.

They cite the example of French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's likely trip to India in February that will mark an eventful chapter in bilateral ties that began inJanuary 1998 with the visit of Jacques Chirac for the Republic Day celebrations.

On September 7, two days after Lalita Oraon escaped from her employer's home in Paris, France effectively stymied a move to put New Delhi in the dock over its nuclear tests.

A meeting of the G-8 Task Force on South Asia (put together to monitor India and Pakistan's commitments to nuclear non-proliferation, after their tests last year) that was supposed to take place in New York that day, didn't happen. France worked to persuade both Finland, in its capacity as president of the European Union, and Germany (a member of the G-8) not to send representatives to the meeting.

It was a neat move, beautifully stage-managed by Paris. The French foreign office put the word out that ``there was no European consensus'' to the line that was to be followed in New York. The clear implication was that Paris would not agree to any more international criticism of India.

Foreign policy observers say that France, certainly in its owninterest, has since the nuclear tests last year worked to ``create manoeuvreable space'' for India in multilateral fora. The observers point out that it was Paris which persuaded the European Union to refrain from applying economic sanctions against India in the wake of those tests.

``The French are the ultimate realists,'' says an analyst. Both New Delhi and Paris are keenly aware, however, that this ``beautiful relationship'' is based on mutual self-interest. France is keen to sell defence and civilian aircraft to India -- such as Mirages and Airbus -- and India wants to buy. But New Delhi has also made it clear that even though a contract to buy 10 Mirage 2000-5 planes (save for the haggling) is practically sewn up, a long-term defence relationship can only succeed if Paris makes a determination that India is its logical partner in South Asia.