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tokens: minor mergers are common in the local Universe (e.g. see Frenk et al. 1988 ; Carlberg Couchman 1989 ; Lacey Cole 1993 ; Gao et al. 2004 ; Fakhouri Ma 2008 ; Jogee et al. 2009 ; Kaviraj et al. 2009 ), therefore the findings of this paper are in apparent tension with the high frequency of the bar incidence in nearby galaxies. In addition, a galaxy might undergo multiple minor merger events during their entire lifetime (e.g. see Hopkins et al. 2009 ); thus, making the bar weakening event more inevitable. However, in reality, the situation is different as a galaxy might be accreting cold gas (e.g. Birnboim Dekel 2003 ; Kereš et al. 2005 ; Dekel Birnboim 2006 ; Ocvirk, Pichon Teyssier 2008 ; Cornuault et al. 2018 ) either during the mergers or at a later stage and this, in turn, could rejuvenate the bar (e.g. see Semelin Combes 2002 ; Bournaud et al. 2005 ; Combes 2008 ; Marino et al. 2011 ). Indeed, recent observational studies have pointed out such indication of bar rejuvenation event (e.g. Barway Saha 2020 ). Hence, the bar-weakening scenario during a minor merger event as shown in this paper is more appropriate for early-type disc galaxies, which are in general gas poor (e.g. Young Scoville 1991 ). The fraction of galaxies hosting bars decreases from the late-type gas-rich disc galaxies to early-type gas-poor disc galaxies (e.g. see Nair Abraham 2010 ). The bar fraction in disc galaxies tends to reach their minimum values for the lenticular/S0 galaxies (e.g. see Aguerri et al. 2009 ; Buta et al. 2010 ; Nair Abraham 2010 ; Barway, Wadadekar Kembhavi 2011 ). Thus, the recent minor merger events which are dry to a large extent can be a plausible explanation for the absence of strong bars in the early-type galaxies. 6.3 Other issues Here, we discuss a few points relevant for this work. First of all, the bulges present in the GalMer simulations are spherical and initially non-rotating. Previously, Saha Gerhard ( 2013 ) investigated the impact of a rotating classical bulge on the bar growth and the kinematics of the resulting boxy/peanut bulge. Their simulation of isolated galaxies showed that the bar strength decreases in cases with rotating bulges but at the end of 3 Gyr (see their Fig. 2 ), the bar strength with a rotating bulge (one with the maximum rotation) are within 10 per cent of the non-rotating case. In Fig. 5 , we compared the isolated runs and the one with the minor mergers. It appears that the minor merger events can reduce the bar strength nearly by a factor of two (at the end of 3 Gyr) from what it was in the isolated case. Given our understanding of the impact of rotating bulges on the bar strength, it might not overwhelm the impact of minor mergers. However, a detailed analysis and new simulations need to be run to understand and quantify this effect in the context of minor mergers. Secondly, the GalMer suite of simulations make use of the ‘hybrid particle’ scheme to represent the interstellar gas. This approach of gradually