A cartoon depicting a group of scrawny Indian people trying to eat solar panels in The Australian has attracted criticism in India and at home, with public figures and media commentators labelling it "racist" and trading in dated stereotypes.
But the newspaper's new editor-in-chief has stood by the illustration and argued its target was not India but climate change activists. 
The cartoon, published in Monday's edition of The Australian to coincide with the end of the Paris Climate Conference, showed a group of thin 'Indians' clad in turbans and huddled on the ground, angry about being delivered boxes of solar panels.
As one man hits the box with a mallet, another says "It's no good you can't eat them", while a third responds "Hang on, let me try one with a bit of mango chutney."
The image, by veteran cartoonist Bill Leak, attracted condemnation in Australia as well as in India and Britain overnight, with stories in outlets including the UK Telegraph, The Hindustan Times and the Times of India, as well as on social media. Critics took exception both to the depiction of the characters in the cartoon, which was captioned 'Aid a la Mode', as well as the perceived suggestion that India was technologically backwards. 
Tushar Arun Gandhi, politician and great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, described the cartoon as a "racist creation of uneducated arrogance" on Twitter. 
Aditya Iyer, writing in The Hindustan Times said: "Leak's cartoon, focusing on a stereotype of Indian poverty straight out of the 1950s, might leave him red-faced given the increasing adoption of solar panels in Indian villages."
"It's plausible that the emaciated, rag-clad villagers from his cartoon would be able to teach Leak a thing or two about solar energy."
India, with a population of more than a billion people, has some of the highest carbon emissions of any country in the world. But it also has a burgeoning renewable energy sector, and reached 4 gigawatts of solar capacity earlier this year, according to a recent report in Forbes. 
The country's prime minister, Narendra Modi, stressed the need for an agreement that was fair to developing countries at the recent Paris talks, saying climate change "was not of our making" but was the result of fossil fuel-propelled progress in developed countries.
The new editor-in-chief of The Australian, Paul Whittaker, stood by the cartoon, which was published on his first day at the helm of the national paper after a move from Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph.
He said in an email to Fairfax Media that its target was not India but rather "climate change activists who would send poor people solar panels rather than give them something they need - cheap power, aid and a hand up".
He pointed to a recent column in his newspaper by "sceptical environmentalist" Bjorn Lomborg about 'Climate aid gone wrong' in India.
"Those following the debates in and around the Paris conference run in our pages would have realised the target of the cartoon was not Indians. It was quite the opposite. Our readers would have - and, in fact, have - understood this."
The cartoon was also condemned in Australia, with Tasmanian Labor senator Lisa Singh, the country's first parliamentarian of Indian heritage, saying it "shows complete ignorance of India and insults every Indian".
Incredibly disappointed by Bill Leak's cartoon today. Shows complete ignorance of India and insults every Indian. https://t.co/RVjV7WtQS6
??? Lisa Singh (@Lisa_Singh)      December 14, 2015
How backward is Aust #climate politics? Here, the absurd racist rubbish published by Murdoch's national newspaper pic.twitter.com/V6BG2VVnq4
??? David Pope (@davpope)      December 13, 2015
The response in the Indian media was not universally condemnatory though. Sunita Narain, director-general of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, was quoted in The Hindu saying the cartoon showed "the factual position of poor countries after the deal".
"The poor of the world including the Indian poor have been handed a raw deal, and the responsibility for low carbon emissions, while the rich are not doing the same. So the developed world has shipped its problems to the developing world."
1: Racist & Insulting Cartoon on Solar Energy in India 2. World's First 100% Solar Powered Airport at #Kochi, India pic.twitter.com/H9btmIMu1U
??? Jairaj P (@jairajp)      December 14, 2015
Newspaper cartoons are a regular source of political controversy. The Sydney Morning Herald last year apologised for the depiction of a Jewish character in a cartoon about the war in Gaza, which editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir said constituted a "serious error of judgment". 
In the midst of that furore, the ABC's Media Watch also condemned what they described as an "equally contentious" cartoon by Leak depicting a Palestinian militant in army fatigues sending his child "out to play" to "win the PR war". The Australian rejected the comparison between the two cartoons in a subsequent editorial, saying Leak's cartoon was about Hamas, not Palestinians in general, and was a "thoughtful provocation about an unpalatable truth".
The New York Times apologised for a cartoon published in 2014 about India's Mars Mission, which depicted the nation as a man in a turban pulling a cow on a leash, knocking at the door of an 'Elite Space Club'.
Frankly, how does it matter that some cartoonist in Australia thinks of India this way? So passe to get worked up ! https://t.co/1NYK98vYQa
??? rahul joglekar (@r_joggy)      December 14, 2015