Morning Digest: FIR over pellet gun use registered after Congress stir; Rashtrapati Bhavan withdraws email on Bangladesh PM visit, and more

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Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi holds a copy of an FIR, which was registered on a complaint from pellet victim 19-year-old Sahil Lochab, who suffered pellet injuries during the CJP-led July 20 protest, after ending his dharna outside the Parliament Street police station in New Delhi. | Photo Credit: X/@INCIndia via PTI

Following a seven-hour dharna (sit-in) by the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, outside the office of New Delhi’s Deputy Commissioner of Police, police registered an FIR against the use of pellet guns on protesters during the July 20 march to Parliament. Mr. Gandhi sat in the dharna after Sahil Lochab, a 19-year-old who lost his vision in one eye after being hit by pellets during the protest, said the police had refused to register an FIR on his complaint.

An email to the media by the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday (August 21, 2026) briefly created the impression that the long-under-discussion visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman would take place soon. The email sent in the afternoon was headlined, “No change of guard ceremony this Saturday”. However, soon another release came from the Rashtrapati Bhavan negating the previous note, saying, “A press release issued on the subject ‘No change of guard ceremony this Saturday’, which was issued on August 21, 2026, stands withdrawn.” These two announcements added to the buzz around Mr. Rahman’s visit plans for New Delhi, as the two sides had been in talks on it.

“A scuffle broke out on Friday (August 21, 2026) between police and students protesting against alleged Jharkhand recruitment examination irregularities in Ranchi, with the agitators attempting to burn effigies of Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi,” officials said. Student leaders under the banner of the ‘JPSC-JSSC Reforms Manch’ have accused the Jharkhand government of “deceiving” and “betraying” job aspirants after the High Court stayed some notifications cancelling appointments through the 11th and 13th JPSC examinations besides the JSSC-CGL.

Former Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust (SRJTKT) general secretary and senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Champat Rai, in an article released on August 18, said Ram temple construction committee chairman Nripendra Misra exercised near-complete control over the temple’s construction and “considered himself the principal authority on all decisions”. In the nine-page Hindi article, shared in the VHP media group, Mr. Rai claimed that no work on the Ram temple was undertaken without Mr. Misra’s approval and that decisions taken without his involvement were rejected.

An IndiGo Airbus A321’s fuselage scraped the runway during landing at Gorakhpur earlier this week, according to industry sources, marking at least the 8th tail-strike incident involving the airline’s A321 fleet. The aircraft has remained grounded since the incident, which came to light in Gorakhpur on August 19.