On June 28, Seychelles President Patrick Herminie draped a brand new presidential distinction round Narendra Modi’s neck: the “Guardian of the Blue Horizon”. Modi was its first recipient. He will, in all likelihood, also be its only one.

The Seychelles cabinet had approved the honour a mere three days before the ceremony. The citation was riddled with errors: “Republic” became “Repubblic”. “Seychelles” turned into “Seycheeles”.

A technology journalist reported that the certificate image carried a SynthID signature, suggesting it had been produced using an AI image generator.

Neither the Seychelles government nor India’s Ministry of External Affairs posted the citation on their official websites, a curious omission for a state honour bestowed on a sitting prime minister.

Seychelles officials later offered an explanation. Their old honours framework had become politically contentious and had been repealed by the National Assembly, forcing the government to draft a fresh system in a hurry. Modi’s visit served as the convenient occasion to launch it.

That account may well be true. However, it does not explain the typos, the apparent AI generation or why a 50-year-old nation marking its golden jubilee could not produce a clean certificate for a visiting head of government.

This was not an isolated embarrassment. Four months earlier, on February 25, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana presented Modi with the “Medal...

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