In the Kenye family in Kohima, there is a much-shared joke they often laugh over: “What goes on and on and on? A gossipmonger’s tongue and the Naga peace process."

Unfortunately, they say, this joke will never get old or die. Recent developments in the state have once again given the Kenye family reasons to believe so. The state government, at the ‘behest’ of Governor RN Ravi, earlier this month asked all employees to furnish details of family members and relatives who are members of “underground organisations” and submit it to the home department by August 7.

The latest move, many feel, will once again add to the complexities linked to the decades-old peace process in Nagaland.

But developments during the same time last year portrayed a different picture. In his Independence Day message last year, Ravi asserted that the state was on the cusp of history with a new dawn of peace and prosperity beckoning it.