TEAR gas was used against farmers and some were detained amid clashes with Indian police over barricades blocking the way to New Delhi today.

The farmers are demanding guaranteed crop prices in a repeat of protests in 2021, when they camped on the capital’s outskirts for more than a year.

Police dropped tear gas canisters on the protesting farmers from a drone at one of the border points in northern Haryana state that leads to New Delhi, where tens of thousands of farmers are headed on tractors and trucks.

Police have sealed multiple entry points into the capital with barriers of giant metal containers, barbed wire, spikes and cement blocks. 

The right-wing and increasingly authoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has banned large gatherings in the capital and suspended internet service in some districts of neighbouring Haryana state to prevent communication among the protesters.

The demonstration comes more than two years after Mr Modi suffered a major defeat when he was forced to withdraw controversial agriculture laws that had triggered the earlier protests, in which tens of thousands of farmers camped outside the capital through a harsh winter and a devastating Covid-19 surge.

The farmers, who began their march in northern Haryana and Punjab states, are asking for a guaranteed minimum support price for all farm produce. 

Sarwan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, one of the farmer groups, said talks between farm leaders and government ministers on Monday had failed to reach any agreement.

Mr Pandher said: “We do not want to break any barricades. We want a resolution of our issues through dialogue.

“But if they [the government] do nothing, then what will we do? It is our compulsion.”

The government protects agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices by announcing a minimum purchase price for certain essential crops at the beginning of the sowing season, taking into account the cost of production.

Farmers are also pressing the government to meet its promise to double their income and waive their loans. 

The current march comes just months before a national election in which Modi is widely expected to win a third term.

Farmers organisations have announced a countrywide rural strike on Friday.

This coincides with a nationwide action against the policies of Mr Modi’s government organised by nine of the country’s trade union centres, including one of the largest, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions.