The national honour granted by Seychelles to Prime Minister Narendra Modi left social media users puzzled after spelling errors were spotted in the presidential citation of the award. Some users questioned the authenticity of the document.

Seychelles President Patrick Herminie conferred Modi with the Guardian of the Blue Horizon award on Sunday during the Indian prime minister’s visit to the island nation. Modi was the guest of honour at the golden jubilee celebrations of Seychelles’ national day.

The honour, described by the Seychelles government as the country’s highest presidential distinction, was instituted on June 24, three days before Modi’s visit.

Modi was honoured for his leadership, commitment to sustainable development, international cooperation and supporting the aspirations of the small island developing states, the citation said. It also said that Modi was being awarded to appreciate his contribution to bilateral relations.

Social media users were quick to point out the spelling error. The citation had misspelt “republic” as “repubblic” and Seychelles as “Seycheeles”.

The Congress said that there was “so much haste” that the name on the award was printed wrong.

“Seychelles created the award four days back, and Modi ji rushed over to collect it,” party leader Supriya Shrinate said on social media. “Along with that, he also provided economic aid of Rs 1,500 crore.”

“His awards are like that – no one got it before, nor will anyone after him,” she added.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said that the prime minister “loves awards” and foreign travel. “He used our money to give Rs 500 crore grant and Rs 1,250 crore line of credit to Seychelles who happily gave him a misspelt certificate,” she said on social media.

Some highlighted the irony of the environmental conservation honour in view of the concerns about the Great Nicobar Project’s ecological impact and implications for the tribal communities.

One user said that the citation “must be for the Great Nicobar Project where a pristine forest is being destroyed by felling at least one million trees”. Another described it as “tragically funny on so many levels”.

The spelling errors also led some to question the authenticity of the citation.

Some users claimed that the citation could have been created using generative Artificial Intelligence tools.

Journalist Suhasini Haidar, the diplomatic editor of The Hindu, said that the question of who had created the misspelt citation had become more significant because neither the Seychelles government, nor India’s Ministry of External Affairs had uploaded the document to their websites.

Edited by Sara Varghese.