Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi on Tuesday said treating all languages equally will help in uniting the country.

"There are many languages in the country, which shows the diversity of India. Once all languages are treated equally, then the country's unity will also be strengthened," he said.

Flagging off a rally of the Tamil Protection Movement, led by Pattali Makkal Katchi founder Dr Ramadoss, at Poonthamalee, a suburb of Chennai, Karunanidhi stressed on the need for protecting all Indian languages and using them as country's administrative languages.

The Tamil Protection Movement was floated, among others, by the PMK and the Dalit Panthers of India. It aims at making people in Tamil Nadu use Tamil in all walks of life.

Karunanidhi said it was not enough to merely declare Tamil as a classical language. Tamil should also be declared as an administrative language of the country.

The rally, whose main organiser is the PMK, after passing through various parts of the state, will culminate at Tiruchirapalli on Mar 26, where a meeting has been scheduled.

The movement has expressed its displeasure particularly over English titles being given to Tamil films.

In fact, the movement leaders had threatened to stop the screening of some films, but the state government warned of stringent action against violence in the name of Tamil.