A statue of India's national emblem, unveiled this week atop the country's new parliament, has been slammed by government critics for its "unnecessarily aggressive" appearance.

Officials maintain that the 10-ton bronze sculpture, which depicts four lions, is an enlarged like-for-like replica of the ancient statue the emblem was modeled on. But opponents were quick to suggest that the creatures had been given intentionally "snarling" expressions and sharpened teeth, describing the alleged move as a symbol of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's politics.

The 21-foot-high statue was unveiled Monday at an inauguration ceremony in New Delhi attended by Modi, who partook in a prayer at the site. The Indian prime minister later posted a video of the event, as well as footage of him meeting laborers involved in building the soon-to-open parliament.

The statue is based on a 3rd-century BCE sandstone sculpture known as "Lion Capital of Ashoka", which was erected on a pillar by the Emperor Ashoka at Sarnath, in present-day Uttar Pradesh.

Following India's independence from Great Britain in 1947, a two-dimensional rendering of the statue -- featuring three of the lions, with the fourth obscured from view -- was adopted as the State Emblem of India. Today, it features on official government letterheads, as well as the country's passports and currency.

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Jairam Ramesh, a member of parliament with the opposition Indian National Congress party tweeted to say that the newly unveiled statue changed the "character and nature of the lions," describing it as "a brazen insult" to a national symbol.

Jawhar Sircar, a politician in the Indian parliament's upper house, meanwhile described the lions as "snarling, unnecessarily aggressive and disproportionate."

Other high-profile figures also weighed in, with lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan suggesting that the depiction of "angry lions with bared fangs" reflected the current political climate. "This is Modi's new India!" he tweeted.

Prominent members of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spoke out in defense of the statue, however. Politician Amit Malviya, who heads the BJP's IT division, said there had been "no change" in the lions' appearance. "The opposition is comparing 2D images in print to an imposing 3D structure," he wrote. "They have lost it."