The mystery of the ‘lady in red’ has finally been solved.
Madhura Nagendra, a former TV anchor from Bangalore, had gatecrashed into the Indian Olympic contingent’s march past at the opening ceremony on Saturday.
However, Madhura’s father, Nagendra, on Sunday clarified his daughter was no intruder and was part of the troupe selected to dance at the inaugural ceremony.
Dressed in a red pullover and blue trousers, Madhura was seen marching alongside Beijing Games bronze medallist Sushil Kumar and her unwanted presence had left Indians fuming as they had no clue as to who she was.
“My daughter Madhura was selected to give a dance performance during the inaugural ceremony by show creator Danny Boyle. There was no security breach by her as nobody can enter the stadium without security clearance,” Nagendra said.
“From whatever I learnt and presume that as she is an Indian, the London Olympics Organising Committee might have selected her also to ‘take’ the team inside the stadium. This might have hurt our team’s feelings. I feel very sorry for that,” he said.
He said that he was also given passes to watch the inaugural ceremony. “I returned from London on Saturday and my daughter will reach Bangalore in the next couple of days,” he added.
Madhura holds an MS in Communication from Christ College, Bangalore.
Understandably agitated by the gatecrasher, India’s acting Chef-de-Mission P K Muralidharan Raja had shot off a letter on the issue to the Games organisers on Saturday in protest against the incident.
Comments
0 comment