I apologise to my countrymen

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The confidence with which Madhura Nagendra walked with the Indian contingent at the Olympics opening ceremony, comes through when she speaks. But given another chance, this trained Bharatanatyam dancer confessed she would never repeat something like this ever again.

After being incommunicado after the now infamous incident last Friday, the Bengaluru girl, who returned home late on Wednesday night, finally broke her silence on Thursday.

Speaking to this newspaper, the post-graduate from Christ College said, “It was an error of judgment from my side and for that I apologize to my countrymen. I want to apologise to the athletes of this country, who have done us all proud, for my small mistake. I was happy to be there and at no point did I mean harm to anybody,” while clarifying that her name was not Madhura Honey as first reported.

Madhura also put to rest speculation that she had gate-crashed the ceremony saying “I wish to clarify, I was selected from over a thousand people, who auditioned for the Olympic dance performance. Only after three rounds of elimination was I selected to be part of the troupe. I am a proud Indian and if I hurt sentiments, I want to apologise,” she said, adding “I did not breach security. I had cleared all security checks.”

Speaking from her home in Banashankri, Madhura refused to divulge if any member of the Organising Committee had spoke to her after the incident or if she had a chance to speak to the athletes and apologize to them personally. Back in the country after completing her Masters in Finance in the UK, Madhura said “I am not going back, but I am going to do something here, something for the country,” she said.