In an innovative resort, some farm protester groups launched multiple kites in the skies on Wednesday to prevent drones arriving overhead to drop teargas shells.

On a day new groups of farmers were drawn into the agitation that will now include a “rail roko” in Punjab on Thursday, farmers at the Shambhu border took to kite-flying in a bid to chase the Haryana police’s drones away. The police have deployed the drones to drop teargas on the protesters. Refusing to be cowed down by the use of “air power” by the police, the farmers sought to make a maze of kite strings in the sky to keep the drones away when they approached, providing the gathering some excitement as they waited for direction from the union leaders on the next course of action.

The use of State power to stop protesting farmers from proceeding to Delhi turned into a double-edged sword on Wednesday.

The government’s “repression” brought the farmers back to the negotiating table while attracting new groups into the protests.

After their second attempt to make their way past the multi-level barricades at Shambhu and Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border was thwarted by the Haryana police on Wednesday, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) — the two main collectives spearheading this farmers agitation — agreed to resume talks with the central government on their demands, including the most contentious one of a law to guarantee minimum support price (MSP) for all crops.

The last round of discussions on Monday evening in Chandigarh with central ministers had remained inconclusive. The Punjab government is understood to have stepped in to open a fresh line of communication with the Centre. This will be the third round of discussions after the Dilli Chalo call given by the two collectives.

The use of drones by the Haryana police to drop teargas shells on farmers on the Punjab side of the border has become a bone of contention between the two state governments.

PTI reported that the Patiala deputy commissioner has written to his Ambala counterpart, asking the Haryana police not to send their drones into Punjab at the Shambhu border near Ambala. Haryana home minister Anil Vij questioned Punjab’s objections, wondering why the Punjab government did not stop the farmers when they set out for Delhi from Amritsar.

While the Shambhu border was relatively quieter on Wednesday, the Khanauri border near Sangrur on the Punjab side and Jind in Haryana saw some scuffles between the farmers and the police. Some farmers were injured in the lathicharge and teargassing.

The meeting with the three central ministers — Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai — will be held on Thursday evening at the Rajpura bypass in Punjab, KMM coordinator Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters.

As more tractors — many of them modified to deal with the security arrangements — joined the protest, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) and the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda-Dhaner faction) announced that they would carry out a “rail roko” at 10 points in Punjab for four hours on Thursday between noon and 4pm.

The Ugrahan group, which was one of the largest groups involved in the year-long farmers’ agitation in 2020-21 — is not part of this farmers’ protest but has decided to carry out the “rail roko” agitation as a show of solidarity against the teargassing on the protesters at the border.

Borrowing a leaf from the previous agitation, SKM Punjab has decided to “free” the toll plazas in the state for three hours on Thursday from 11am to 2pm. This was announced by Darshan Pal of the Krantikari Kisan Union — a member organisation of the “original” SKM.

In the past, when farmers “freed” the toll plazas, motorists were able to drive through them without paying the stipulated amount.