Being Pragmatic Is a Big Leap Forward Jayanta Ghosal 11th January, 2021 12:17:22 Time is like a galloping horse. Half a century ago, on a wintry day of January 10, 1972, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had returned to Bangladesh. It is not desirable that a nation will forget its past. The government of Pakistan released Bangabandhu on 8 January 1972 under international pressure. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto even met Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on that day. Bangabandhu was sent to London even though he had intended to go to Dhaka. On the following day on January 9 British Prime Minister Edward Heath met Bangabandhu. And then when Bangabandhu was returning to Dhaka from London he made a brief stopover in Delhi. The then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President V.V. Giri welcomed Bangabandhu at the airport. Then he arrived in Dhaka on January 10. The day of his release from Pakistan prison is still a memorable day. It marks the end of a prolonged movement and beginning of a new journey.