Feds Arrest Indian-American Defence Analyst Ashley Tellis

The arrest of India-born analyst Ashley Tellis in Washington has come as a bolt from the blue, stunning his friends and admirers in India.  Few can believe that Ashley, a genial, polished speaker on foreign affairs, could have been picked up for handing over classified information to the Chinese. Many in Delhi  find it hard to  digest the news. 

Tellis once served as senior adviser to the U.S. Ambassador Robert D. Blackwill during his tenure in New Delhi from 2001 to 2003 and was a familiar figure in the capital’s diplomatic and think-tank circles. Blackwill and Tellis were key architects in reshaping India–U.S. relations, laying the groundwork for the landmark civil nuclear agreement signed by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. That  deal  ended India’s decades-long nuclear isolation and transformed bilateral ties.

Ironically, Tellis is being charged with passing information to the Chinese. He had always advocated closer ties with the US as a bulwark against China, India’s arch-rival in Asia. He often criticised successive Indian governments for hedging their bets and not fully committing to the US camp. That 

In his latest article in Foreign Policy, Tellis is critical of India’s big power ambitions.

The article, aptly titled India’s Great-Power Delusions, is a critique of India’s exaggerated sense of importance. According to him, India currently lacks the economic power or military capability to place itself on the high table of international affairs, which the Indian elite believes is its right. 

Tellis is critical of India’s policy of strategic autonomy and its multi-aligned foreign policy. Tellis believes that there are now just two power structures in the world, one led by the US and the other by China. He feels that strategic autonomy, that is an offshoot of the Nehruvian  non-aligned foreign policy, is no longer relevant. India’s best defence against China is to be totally aligned with the US. Tellis was attacked by the Right-wing trolls for this article that created a huge stir in foreign policy circles.

A respected figure in America's foreign policy circles, Tellis, at the time of his arrest, was heading the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and serving as a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. During the George Bush administration, he served as a senior adviser to the U.S. State Department and as a member of the National Security Council staff. 

Earlier, he  was a Senior Policy Analyst at the RAND Corporation and Professor of Policy Analysis at the RAND Graduate School. He has written several books on foreign policy.

Bombay-born Ashley Tellis is a Republican of the old school and is critical of the current party that is shaped by Donald Trump.