Narendra Modi added another trophy to his ever-growing collection over the weekend, this time in Seychelles, where he was handed the Guardian of the Blue Horizon award. The Indian prime minister beamed as he accepted the honor from President Patrick Herminie, complete with trophy and certificate. Observers, however, quickly noticed that the certificate misspelled “republic” as “repubblic” and “Seychelles” as “Seycheeles.” It also emerged that the award had been created just three days before Modi’s arrival, making him the first and only recipient. To top it off, the certificate was widely flagged as AI-generated when run through detection software.

The opposition Congress party pounced, with politician Supriya Shrinate saying, “Give him any award, and he’ll come running. They were in such a tearing hurry that they even got the official name of the Republic of Seychelles wrong.” Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) countered that it was a “proud moment for India” for his “green leadership.” The Seychelles foreign ministry later claimed a “working draft” had been accidentally circulated, insisting the award is “genuine.”

This is hardly an isolated incident. Last month, Israel’s parliament hastily created the medal of the Knesset for Modi, its only recipient to date. In 2019, Modi became the first recipient of India’s Philip Kotler presidential award, which was supposed to be annual but has since gone dormant. Author Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay says the global prize push is symptomatic of Modi’s personality-driven politics: “The intention behind collecting these awards is to convey that Modi is being honored worldwide because of his greatness.” The BJP insists the awards recognize Modi’s international stature.