Oh that's not the reason. Animation in general is seen as childish by the vast majority here in India, and a lot of people wouldn't even imagine that animation could be NSFW. Most folks wouldn't care less if the child was watching, say, Bojack Horseman (except any blatantly explicit scenes/words of course). Tom and Jerry is an easy reach, since the humor is more slapstick than verbal, and it's been around long enough that parents today have grown up watching it on TV. Most of the NSFW stuff in Spongebob is too subtle for the average uninterested Indian adult.
Basically, children's entertainment = animation = Tom and Jerry, more often than not. Urban 1%er parents tend to default to Peppa Pig.
It's sad that you feel like you have to preemptively defend yourself against criticism for implying children shouldn't be exposed to subversive or NSFW content.
I would assume the apology was for classifying SpongeBob as subversive or NSFW, which they likely don’t agree with (and it seems like you probably should have to defend your view if you do as it’s a pretty fringe PoV)
Basically, children's entertainment = animation = Tom and Jerry, more often than not. Urban 1%er parents tend to default to Peppa Pig.