Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was shouted out of Calcutta University’s convocation by a section of students protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.

The programme could only begin after Dhankhar, the chancellor of the university, left the green room of Nazrul Mancha.

Vice-chancellor Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee was heard announcing at 1.29pm that “the chancellor has left” and pleading with the protesting students to let the academic procession enter the venue.

The convocation was to start at 1pm.

Many of the guests seated in the front row felt such disruptive protests were discourteous but at least two of them, both women, said they were legitimate. One of them said people were expected to protest wherever they could in “extraordinary times” such as this.

Veena Das, the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University, told Metro after the convocation: “The people who are protesting have to use every opportunity. I am totally with the students. The protest might have caused some inconvenience, but I think the VC handled the situation very well. The chancellor should not have come. It seems to me that he did the wise thing by leaving.

“Attempts are being made to change the Constitution. Protests are being organised everywhere. Rallies are being held. Attacks are being unleashed on protesting students. There is no space which we cannot call a political space.”

Earlier, scores of students holding posters parked themselves in the space between the stage and the front row and shouted slogans such as “NRC, CAA manchhi na, manbo na (We won’t accept NRC, CAA)” and “Rajyapal, Padmapal (lotus chief) go back”.

Das did not object to the sloganeering. Amid the din, she told a reporter: “In my opinion, this protest should take place. The issue is right. If the chancellor leaves the venue, the situation would be resolved.”

Das, who had taught at the Delhi School of Economics before joining Johns Hopkins, was one of the four recipients of the Sudhindra Chandra Chakraborty Memorial Medal.

Veena Das of Johns Hopkins University at the convocation on Tuesday

This newspaper asked her if the protest lacked civility. She said: “We can say that this is against civility, this has been uncivil. But I am of the view that the issues are so big that they should protest immediately using every available opportunity. It’s an extraordinary situation. I am totally with the students.”

Protests against the new citizenship matrix are also taking place on campuses abroad, she said. “This is not the India where I grew up…. The way women have come out and are leading the protests in Park Circus and Shaheen Bagh, I am overwhelmed,” she said.

Seated next to her was Manabi Majumdar, a professor of political science at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. She, too, supported the protest.

“I think there are reasons for this protest,” Majumdar, another recipient of the Sudhindra Chandra Chakraborty Memorial Medal, said amid the sloganeering.

While the protests were unfolding inside the auditorium, Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee was waiting in the green room. He was awarded an honorary DLitt.

What does he think of the protests, Banerjee was asked. He said: “No comments”.

Partha Pratim Majumder, a distinguished professor at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics who received the Sir Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray Medal, said: “He (Banerjee) has seen many of these (protests). He was in Presidency and then JNU and has seen a lot of it. He even participated in some of them.”

Majumder said the “partisan stand of the chancellor on issues such as CAA and NCR, must have infuriated the students”. But he felt the convocation was not an appropriate venue for such protests.

The trouble started once the chancellor reached the venue at 12.40pm. The students, armed with posters that read “Rajyapal go back”, surrounded his car and shouted slogans against him.

Dhankhar, however, managed to enter the green room. There, he wore the convocation robe and sat beside Nobel laureate Banerjee and his mother Nirmala Banerjee.

He also signed on the honorary DLitt certificate that was to be handed over to the economist.

Even as Dhankhar was completing the formalities, the students started their protest inside the auditorium. As the protest did not subside, Dhankhar left.