The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has long maintained that it is not a political organisation and that its motives and objectives are purely social and cultural.It seeks to establish a larger Hindu unity, with the term ‘Hindu’ defined as anyone who shares the civilisational continuity that is Bharat, rather than as a religious identity. However, the organisation, known for its massive organisational base and ground presence, has made some exceptions to this norm.The open involvement of senior RSS leadership in Punjab elections is a case in point. Sangh joint general secretary (organisation) Arun Kumar has already held two major strategy meetings with RSS-affiliated bodies working in Punjab.These included the top leadership of Sangh organisations such as the BJP, the VHP, the ABVP and others. The last such meeting was held for four hours on Friday at the Chandigarh UT Guest House.The Tribune has exclusively reported on both meetings and their proceedings, in which the Sangh leadership told cadres that winning Punjab was important for the state and the nation, as well as for India’s larger strategic interests.The RSS has earlier engaged itself so openly in only four elections — the 1977 General Election, held after the Emergency, when the RSS backed the Jayaprakash Narayan-led public movement against then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was defeated.The Sangh then openly supported the BJP, which won a historic mandate in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, routing the Congress, which was reduced to just 44 seats in the 543-member House, its lowest-ever tally.The RSS’s most recent engagement was in the last Haryana Assembly elections, in which the BJP secured a hat-trick, and now in Punjab.BJP sources say the Sangh’s involvement is always strategic, with Punjab viewed as a state where religious conversions are on a massive upswing.Although religious conversions have not dominated the poll narrative in Punjab, the issue worries the RSS, with Sangh leaders repeatedly seeking an end to forced conversions.Earlier this year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had listed religious conversions to Christianity in Punjab as a major poll issue in the state.However, the issue of conversions has taken a back seat in the public campaign, with drugs, law and order, and social harmony through initiatives such as the Sant Ravidas Yatra taking centre stage.But conversions remain a major concern for the Sangh, said a senior BJP leader, adding that the largest church in Asia is coming up in Jalandhar and claiming there is evidence of intensive conversion to Christianity.BJP leaders also point out that when the RSS openly throws its weight behind the BJP in any election, it signals how crucial that election cycle is for the Sangh Parivar, its affiliates and their ideological moorings.“It is a sign that the RSS and BJP will put everything they have into the given election,” said a senior BJP source.The RSS gets involved in other elections too, but not as openly as it has in the four election cycles mentioned above.“Mostly the support is in the form of organisational base in the form of workers and volunteers. Open strategic involvement is rare,” a BJP veteran explains.