Bharatiya Janata Party National General Secretary Ram Madhav on Wednesday said the Ram temple case in the Supreme Court is “going nowhere”. In an interview with The Indian Express, Madhav said the Centre has to look at some measures to resolve the matter, since the Supreme Court has repeatedly postponed dates of the hearing. On January 27, the Supreme Court deferred the hearing set for Tuesday, but has still not announced a new date.

“Now they are not even giving us a date,” he said. “The case in Supreme Court is actually going nowhere. Now we have a commitment to the people. When the Supreme Court does not initiate the process, then the government has to certainly look for some other measures that would satisfy crores of people who want the temple there.”

But Madhav denied that the Centre’s decision to move the top court, seeking its permission to return all excess acquired land at the site to the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, has any relation to the Ram Janmabhoomi case. He added: “This is the minimum we could do now...even in this matter of unfreezing land, our hands are tied. The order to maintain status quo was issued by the Supreme Court.”

The BJP leader also said that the party is ready to find a “middle ground” with its allies in the North East on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. Madhav acknowledged that the BJP’s allies in the North East had problems with the bill, but refused to disclose what the “middle ground” would be.

The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955 to grant citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians from the Muslim-majority nations of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan if they have lived in India for six years.

“I cannot give you a categorical answer now,” Madhav said. “Our leadership is discussing how to address the concerns that are being expressed by different alliance partners as well as different sections of the people in the North East. At the same time we have to deliver on our promise to the persecuted people.”

“This is a commitment we gave to people in our regular conferences, resolutions and even in the [2014] manifesto,” the BJP leader added. He said that the BJP hopes its allies will appreciate the need for the bill.