Recently a report in a major Indian daily raised an online furore after it alleged that school children were unhappy with Akshay Patra’s mid-day meal scheme as it did not serve either onion or garlic, and also raised questions over the nutrition provided in the meals.

The charges against Akshaya Patra were largely panned for being inaccurate and the editor of the daily herself later acknowledged that the “attack on Akshaya Patra was unwarranted”.

A few days later the issue was picked up by a television channel which argued that, “religious philosophy should not be used to dictate children’s feeding habits, simply due to their poverty”.

This was considered by many as a bigoted attack on Akshaya Patra following which scientist and political commentator Anand Ranganathan appealed to people to walk the talk and donate en masse to Akshaya Patra to silence “vested interests”.