The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Saturday alleged that the Congress, the Maoists and the jihadists were conspiring together to create disaffection in the country, PTI reported.

VHP Joint General Secretary Surendra Jain said the incidents of mob lynching and the rise in anti-Dalit violence were part of the conspiracy to create disturbance.

“Those arrested in the Bhima-Koregaon violence have said they wanted to create disturbance and a violent environment to destabilise the country,” Jain said. “I would blame the Congress, jihadists, Maoists and a section of Church for conspiring together. On social media, they presented a false interpretation of the Supreme Court order to incite violence.”

Jain was referring to the top court’s order diluting some provisions of the stringent Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Jain said that the VHP was trying to create “social cohesion” and demanded that the Union government expose the “conspiracy” behind the anti-Dalit violence. “The VHP is taking this issue very seriously, and we are trying to create a new discourse, new narrative, and are also running self-help groups [for Dalits],” he said.

On the resignation of Pravin Togadia as VHP chief, Jain said Togadia seemed confused and it was not clear if he was trying to harm the VHP, the central government or the Hindu community.

A spate of mob lynchings has claimed 22 lives in Maharashtra, Tripura, Assam, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Karnataka since March. The mobs seem to have been influenced by widely shared WhatsApp videos and messages asking people to beware of child kidnappers. The victims in most cases were people on the margins of society.