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."

Critics have suggested that other depictions of the national emblem, such as this one in Mumbai, have a more benevolent appearance. 

Critics have suggested that other depictions of the national emblem, such as this one in Mumbai, have a more benevolent appearance. Credit: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

Senior government minister Hardeep Singh Puri, meanwhile attributed alleged differences to the new statue's larger size and height, arguing that the ancient original "would look as calm or angry" if viewed from below.

"Beauty is famously regarded as lying in the eyes of the beholder," he tweeted. "So is the case with calm anger."

Appearing on TV news network India Today on Tuesday, the sculptor behind the work, Sunil Deore, said the lions' teeth were simply more visible when viewed from beneath. Demonstrating with a scale model of the statue, he added: "The angle makes a lot of difference."

"If you check its proportions and the proportions of my lion, it has been enlarged exactly," he said, before claiming: "My brief was to create a replica of the (original) sculpture.